11:33am Thursday 18th March 2010
By Sportsdesk
After their defeat at Scarborough on Saturday Skipton entertain local rivals Keighley on Saturday in their last home league game this season.
With several experienced players set to be fit to play, it promises to be a very exciting game to look forward to.
Saturday’s was the first game played at Scarborough since the middle of December due to a combination of snow, ice and more recently, a waterlogged pitch.
Despite the splendid new clubhouse complex, the pitch was still being heavily sanded before the game to allow the game to be played. This was not to Skipton’s advantage as the home pack was much heavier.
Skipton kicked-off and both sides jostled for possession and position for the first 15 minutes. Scarborough had the ball and managed to work their way into the Skipton 22.
The Skipton backs defended and tackled well and kicked to clear the ball.
Scarborough won their line-out, and set up a driving maul. The Skipton forwards stopped the drive, and kicked clear. However, the resultant line-out was fumbled by both jumpers, but one of the Scarborough second rows managed to scoop up the ball and crash over for the first try. The conversion made the score 7-0.
The next score came ten minutes later, Skipton were in possession and on the attack. Winning their line-out, the ball was passed out to Adam Oldfield at fly-half. He kicked an up-and-under for his centres to chase.
Andrew Nicholson jumped bravely to catch, however his pass to Darren Howson was intercepted by the opposition who raced towards the Skipton try line. The back three of Wooton, Nicholson and Jeremy Hargreaves converged to stop the attack, but a penalty was awarded for handling on the ground. Scarborough elected to kick and it was converted to take the score to 10-0. r.
Scarborough set up a driving maul. When done properly this is almost impossible to stop (legally) and the heavy Scarborough forwards crept inexorably towards the Skipton try line.
Despite a valiant effort from all the Skipton forwards, they managed to get over the line for a try. Converted, this made the score 17-0 to the home side.
With Chris Sheehan seriously injured in this drive, Michael Murray came on. In the final minute of the half, Scarborough won another line-out and set up yet another driving maul, which once again was impossible to stop on the heavy pitch.
Converted again, the score moved on to 24-0 and the whistle blew for half-time.
In the second-half Skipton were awarded a penalty for a dangerous tackle on Murray. This was kicked to touch, and Skipton won the line-out and young prop Ryan Binner made an exciting run.
At the next scrum, Boatwright came on to replace Richard Willsher. Skipton won the scrum, and Martin Murray picked up the ball and made yet another good powerful run into the opposition.
The ball was recycled and passed out to Oldfield who kicked another up-and-under to chase. Scarborough caught the ball, and their backs managed to pass the ball between themselves to evade the Skipton defence and score another try. Converted, the score was 31-0.
Skipton continued to attack with good spirit, with the young back three of Wilkinson, Wooton and Hargreaves making some exciting runs from ball provided by Howson and Nicholson in the centre.
One run saw Wooton intercept and race forward, combining with Wilkinson and Hargreaves to get within a couple of yards of the Scarborough line before being tackled.
Scarborough managed to resist the next attack, and clear. A few minutes later Skipton were awarded a penalty for off-side in the ruck, took it quickly and once again moved the ball out to the wing and got close again to the Scarborough try line, but could not get across.
Another Skipton penalty on the five metre line was quickly taken by Ingham, who tried to force his way across the line but was held up mere inches from the line. With that the referee blew for full time with the final score 31-0.
With several senior players unavailable this was a spirited performance. The forwards held their own against a much heavier Scarborough pack, with Martin Murray making some powerful runs from the base of the scrum.
However, the one move that was found to be almost impossible to defend was the well set-up driving maul from a line-out, which accounted for many of the Scarborough points. The backs played well, both in attack and defence. Only one try was conceded, and that was from open play following a high kick with normal formations disrupted.
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