Heath 6 North Ribblesdale 14

A 70th minute penalty from Robbie Davidson finally secured North Ribblesdale’s victory in a scrappy but entertaining match.

The successful kick put Ribb eight points clear, but even before then it was hard to see Heath scoring a try.

They had plenty of possession but could not break the midfield grip exerted by the excellent centres Will Davidson and Jonathan Richards.

Heath had to resort to speculative kicks which were competently dealt with by the visitors’ back three.

Despite for once having a nice day for rugby, both sides made numerous unforced handling errors The first significant moved came from Ribb after ten minutes. They took their first strike against the head and from the resulting possession Richards put skipper Mick Carr into a gap.

He was held on the 22, but it did indicate Ribb’s attacking potential.

It was the first of four strikes that hooker Adam Stubbs gained on the Heath put in.

He achieved this despite the fact that Heath’s big pack gave Ribb a tough time all afternoon.

It was the heels against the head and the improved line-out performance that proved key to Ribb’s win.

The closeness of the score for most of the game did not reflect Ribb’s better attacking potential.

Stubbs got over the line early in the second half but could not ground the ball, David Fox, who was the pick of a good Ribb backline, scored one very good try and knocked on over the line for another.

The 6-3 half-time lead for Ribb was a fair reflection of the game.

Heath had no shortage of possession and courtesy of several penalties were regular visitors to the Ribb 22, but they could not breech a defence in which Jake Nowell was prominent.

Robbie Davidson had kicked two penalties and Hinchcliffe one for Heath in the first period.

Ribb started the second half with some vigour. A series of drives took them close culminating in Stubbs going over but being able to touch down.

Heath defended well and took play to the halfway line. A strong tackle by Will Davidson released the ball which enabled Carr to set off on a strong run.

The skipper drew his man before handing on to Davidson who sent Fox clear but with quite a bit of work to do.

He did it well rounding the last defender to score in the corner, however the conversion went wide.

Ribb made their characteristic mess of the restart. It’s amazing that the full back has to cover half the field but eight forwards cannot cover a tenth of it.

This feature of Ribb’s play is almost as shambolic as their tap penalties.

From the line-out Heath drove and released their backs.

Ribb were offside and Hinchcliffe kicked another goal to his side within a score of the visitors.

Ribb came back and a break from deep by Will Davidson, carried on by Chris Heap, put Fox away again.

He beat two men before chipping over the full back. Unfortunately he knocked on as he tried to regather with the line at his mercy.

From the drop out Ribb drove forward. A neat break by Hayden Viles gave Steve Moon the opportunity to run. He was just caught by the full back but his Heath were offside.

Robbie Davidson made no mistake to close out the game.

Ribb play third-placed Ilkley at home on Saturday and they will be without a few players so they will have to be at their very best to climb further up the table.

Hopefully they can reproduce their productive away form at home.

Ribb’s second team were beaten 35-26 by Heath seconds. James Wallbank (2), Ethan Henare and John Padley scored tries for the losers.