Northern 22 Ilkley 16

THIS was without doubt Ilkley's worst performance of the season as they made their first visit to Northern since their historic play-off win six years ago.

This time their only reward was a solitary losing bonus-point and it is doubtful if Rhys Morgan's men can play so badly for the rest of the campaign.

Nick Carolan’s late withdrawal meant that Steve Graham played at No 8 and Tom Baxter moved to hooker, later to be replaced by the evergreen Jon Hutchinson.

Ben Magee was rested in anticipation of his Yorkshire under-20 game on Sunday, his place being filled by J-H Johnson. Pete Small’s injury gave Ollie Renton a berth in the second row.

Josh Kimber gave Ilkley an early lead when the Northern backs stayed offside after good runs by Johnson and Graham, but Northern stand-off Donal Collins fluffed the opportunity to equalise when Ilkley offended from the kick-off.

The Northern pack were not to be put off by the miss and rumbled forward. Despite a poor pass from scrum-half Owen Clemmett, centre James Crowther was on hand to collect the ball on the second bounce and go in under the posts.

Collins made no mistake with the conversion to put the hosts 7-3 up, but Ilkley came back with their best play of the day. Johnson was unlucky to have his pass judged forward, but then a Kimber penalty gave the visitors a line-out on the Northern 22.

A classic catch and drive resulted in a blind-side try for Paul Petchey in the corner. Kimber missed the extras but Ilkley were ahead by a point.

The Ilkley stand-off made amends for the miss with a great long-range penalty to extend the lead to 11-7 but then the visitors went to sleep.

A poor kick out of hand by Kimber was fielded by Northern’s Spike Strang and only a magnificent cover tackle by spared the stand-offs blushes.

Ilkley offended at the ruck and after a first quick tap was thwarted, the resulting scrum saw the visiting concede a pushover try, courtesy of Northern skipper James Ellis.

Further Ilkley sloppiness in the backs was punished minutes later when a poor pass saw the ball fall free, only to be collected by Crowther, who shrugged off two very poor attempts to tackle,before scoring under the posts. His side now led 19-11 with ten minutes to the break.

Half-time came as some relief to the Ilkley support, as the number of unforced errors increased. This relief was short-lived as whatever coach Rhys Morgan had to say during the break had no effect

A two-man overlap was ignored, a scrum was lost against the head, three penalties were conceded and then the Dalesmen lost their own line-out, not for the first or last time.

Will Coates saw yellow for a short-arm tackle, for which his side also conceded three points and they looked dead and buried at 22-11 down.

Matters did not improve as the visitors then really got on the wrong side of referee Gregg Dawson, though Northern did not look likely to score for the rest of the match, despite the plethora of penalties going their way.

Ilkley battled hard to be fair, but it was just not their day. Northern’s Allsop was carded for a scrummaging offence after a catch and drive, but Ilkley were unable to take immediate advantage. Eventually though, the pressure told and Petchey had another good run stopped in the opposition 22, but illegally.

With Steve Nolson on for James Crossley, Ilkley opted for the scrum and from that, Petchey turned up on the wrong wing to take the scoring pass, Kimber narrowly missing the conversion.

Ilkley were now the better of two poor sides and when Kimber was flattened by Northern lock Alan Douglas, who was carded, his kick found touch deep in the opposition 22. The catch and drive was halted illegally with a Northern hand and flanker Tom McCullough was penalised.

The Dalesmen drove hard and a ruck formed within easy striking distance. Then the desperate home pack offended again, only for Ilkley’s John Cooksey to be carded for use of his knee. The second reversed penalty of the day enabled Collins to kick the ball dead and that was it.

This was surely a day to forget and the heady days of early November seem a distant memory. Ilkley played as if they had been introduced to each other in the changing room and it seemed that the entire side had a bad day in the office, though Petchey took his chances well.

The backs were generally well off their stride, the back row turned from pale to invisible and the line-outs were truly awful.

A sunny December day at Stacks Field with a bumper crowd and a visit by third from bottom Driffield is the remedy required. And for the home side to turn up, of course.