NORTH Ribblesdale coach Craig Eccleston felt a mixture of pride and disappointment after their 52-15 defeat at Bradford Salem last Saturday.
Ribb, whose pack had played well in the first half, led 8-7 at half-time before capitulating after the break in the Yorkshire Division One derby.
The losing bonus point that Yarnbury gained in their 19-12 defeat at home to Heath dropped the Settle team back to the foot of the table, and Eccleston said: “We know we are in a dogfight and it is going to be very difficult, but we need to be a bit fitter and show more nous.”
Ribb were a bit unlucky not to score more tries in the first half, especially when Salem fly half Andy Robinson kicked the ball from a retreating scrum close to the home line, but the visitors knew what they needed to do in the second half.
Eccleston added: “We really needed to score first after the interval.”
But Salem got three tries in 14 minutes early in the second half and finished with three more in 11 minutes towards the close, adding another for good measure in the middle.
However, Eccleston took pride in the performances of winger Sam Morphet and fellow teenager Liam Wallbank, who suffered a mighty hit but showed he is made of stern stuff by indicating that he was all right after being helped off.
lMatch report – Page 71
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