North Ribblesdale 19 Huddersfield YMCA 29

The young men from YMCA were on song as the Huddersfield club avenged their early loss to North Ribblesdale and went to the top of Yorkshire Division One.

The visitors’ muscular backline was impressive throughout and did much of the damage on a day when the home side’s cause wasn’t helped by their line-out failing to function with its normal efficiency.

Ribb kicked three penalties into the corner and lost all three line-outs which summed up their afternoon.

When they won at Huddersfield before Christmas their success was based on an iron midfield defence.

On Saturday it proved fallible with the powerful Adam Ryder doing a lot of damage but in the early stages the signs were good for Ribb.

A glimpse of what might have been came in the first scrum where the visiting hooker was unable to strike and Ribb took the ball.

And things got better after five minutes when Robbie Davidson made a slanting run into the YMCA 22.

He rounded the full back to score and converted the try himself. This shook the cobwebs out of YMCA.

They took possession from the kick off and mounted a series of assaults on the Ribb defensive line. It resulted in a try by Ryder which Tom Stead converted to level the scores.

YMCA had their tails up and a driven maul saw them score a second try and take a 12-7 lead.

Play was evenly contested for the next 15 minutes but Huddersfield drew clear when another break by Ryder put Stead in for a try which he converted his own try to put Huddersfield 19-7 up.

Just before half-time Ribb started to win possession and Will Davidson took two unsuccessful long-range shots at goal.

Ribb came out firing on all cylinders in the second half and put YMCA under pressure, however their fallible line-out meant that it could not be sustained.

The next 20 minutes saw a midfield battle. Essentially it was Ribb’s scrum dominance against the visitors back line.

Ribb got a deserved score when the official lost patience with the visitors scrum and awarded a penalty try.

For the next ten minutes Ribb were battered at the line and pushed YMCA back several times before losing the ball with the line beckoning.

YMCA eventually cleared into the Ribb half where Stead kicked a penalty for offside.

Ribb came back and were rewarded when a neat back move put Jonathan Richards away. He drew the last defender and put winger Ben Mitchell in at the corner.

Huddersfield were now under pressure at 22-19, but they made the game secure when a trademark break by Ryder put the winger in for a try. Stead’s conversion extended the lead to ten points.

Huddersfield played much of this game with a greater intensity than Ribb, although it might have been a different story if the line-out had proved as efficient as the scrum.

The back three of Robbie Davidson, David Fox and Robbie Hayes were Ribb’s stand out performers on an afternoon when YMCA put them to the test.