Yarnbury 10 North Ribblesdale 20

THE fortunes of these two clubs have changed markedly over the second half of the season.

At the turn of the year North Ribblesdale were firmly anchored to the bottom of the table, seven points adrift of Hullensians with only 14 league points, whilst Yarnbury were riding high at third in the league.

The Settle side have turned their season round with nine straight wins and have now guaranteed Yorkshire One status for next season with some outstanding performances, while Yarnbury have been on a downward spiral.

Yarnbury started brightly but seemed to concede penalties every time they had the ball in hand. From one of these, Alex Naylor gave the visitors the lead.

Yarnbury continued to incur the wrath of the referee and were constantly punished, conceding ground on a regular basis and Naylor missed a chance at goal in the 22nd minute.

Eventually the home side began to string some moves together. Yarnbury fly half Jarrod Huss kicked for the corner. The line-out was secured and the resulting maul was driven over the line for James Barrett claimed the score, the conversion was missed.

Five minute later Ribb scored a try of their own. Having secured possession in the Yarnbury 22 they moved the ball quickly down the three-quarter line and scored easily in the corner, again the conversion was missed.

Yarnbury’s restart was fluffed by the visitors' forwards which led to a penalty which was again kicked to the corner. The line-out was secured and the pack drove Barrett over for his second try.

This took the score to 10-8 at half time, Yarnbury would have the wind at their backs, what could go wrong?

Things were looking good when Ribb’s goal kicker Naylor was yellow carded for a high tackle.

Yarnbury pressed forward but were denied by a combination of strong tackling and poor decision making.

With 14 men Ribb continued to play their rugby and pressed the home line. Gaining possession Yarnbury tried to play their way out of defence when a firm boot up the field would have been a better option. Inevitably the ball fell into Ribb hands and hooker Matt Speres crashed over from short range.

Yarnbury lacked cohesion and the game was finally settled when Ribb full back Adam Whaites, who had an outstanding match, started a move which resulted in a try for No 8 Mick Carr. The difficult conversion from wide out was made, into the wind, by Naylor.

North Ribblesdale are a side who are now used to winning and Yarnbury are looking forward to a summer break

They will need to regroup for the Yorkshire Shield quarter-final game next Thursday at Brownberrie Lane against local rivals West Leeds.