Pocklington 18 Ripon 15

Ripon’s battle for survival in Yorkshire 2 will continue into the final weekend after a late penalty denied them a share of the spoils at Pocklington. Ripon started the game brightly and early exchanges suggested the two teams were fairly evenly matched. Ripon’s scrum was looking dominant but the lineout was misfiring badly. Pocklington showed some ambition to move the ball wide with some goood interchange between forwards and backs.

The opening score came after 15 minutes as fly-half Alec Porter landed a penalty. However the home side responded by putting Ripon under pressure and a lineout catch and drive saw the Pocklington forwards crash over for their opening score.

Ripon responded in style as a well worked move was finished off by Porter; he also added the extra two for a 10-5 lead. Ripon had a great chance to extend their lead as winger Adi Potter burst forward only to be scragged short as he cut back inside. The half ended with Ripon deservedly in front.

Ripon turned around and now faced into the strong wind knowing the next score would proabably be crucial. The first scoring chance came as the referee awarded the home side a penalty in front of the posts; fortunately for Ripon the kick was poorly struck and missed.

However Pock were soon level as their forwards surged again and breached the Ripon line, only for some desperate defending preventing the ball being grounded. The subsequent scrum was won and the home side crashed off for a try to make it 10-10.

Ripon soon found their way back into the game as the excellent Porter burst out of his own 22 to feed replacement winger Phil Shaw. He was quick into his stride and had too much pace for the cover tackles as he sprinted into the right corner to nose Ripon back into a 15-10 lead.

Parity was restored on the 70th minute as the home side capitalised on turnover ball to register their third try and leave the game on a knife edge at 15-15. Ripon looked to have done enough to secure a valuable away point but the referee was to have the final say. He awarded Pocklington a penalty for a (dubious) high tackle right at the death; the kick just made it over to clinch a win for the home side.

The final whistle brough heartache for Ripon. In truth we didn’t play particularly well but still created enough chances to have won this game. This takes nothing away from Pocklington who deserved their win - it was just a game we had to (and should have) won. There is no denying the honest endeavour of the players but critical errors hurt us.

On a positive note, Alec Porter produced a very accomplished performance at fly-half and Phil Shaw made a real impact on his return to first team after injury.

All energy must now go into the final game against Old Brod’s next week. We know we cannot rely on anyone else doing us a favour now.