North Ribblesdale RU
| DALES FOLK |  | | | PICK OF THE PAST | | | READERS' LETTERS | | | COUNTRYFILE | | | | CARTOONS | | |
|
|
|
Ribb outgun Leos up front
North Ribblesdale 39 Leodiensians 6
This was not as one-sided as the score suggests, although Leos were outgunned up front they put some dangerous attacking moves together.
Ribblesdale were punishing in attack and their defence was impressive. One period in the second-half saw them holding off a fierce offensive from Leos with a man in the sin bin. In fact Ribb had three players yellow carded in the second-half but made light of the deficiency.
Ribb opened the scoring with a penalty by Tom Davidson but Bundloss responded after a high tackle minutes later.
The Ribb pack then took charge giving quality possession which allowed Ben Topham and Jonathan Richards room to take them to the Leos' 22 forcing a scrum.
The Ribb eight drove the visitors back with their scrum collapsing. The scrum reformed and collapsed again with Ribb driving for the line, a brave but justified decision by the referee gave Ribb a penalty try.
Leos came back and got into the Ribb half their scrum was under pressure but the line-out functioned and quick ball with Bundloss in the line looked dangerous.
A loose pass was seized on by Ian Bartlett who made 20 yards and grubbed the ball past the covering winger. Ben Topham scooped it up and scored from 60 yards for another converted try.
Ribb were in command in the scrum but Leos made a fight of it giving Ribb's midfield defence problems although Davidson, Topham and Richards were up to the task. A further penalty from Bundloss hauled Leos back into contention.
Their proximity was short-lived when Davidson made a slashing break from his ten yard line putting Richards in for an easy try.
Ribb came back from the kick-off with Ryan Kirkbride driving off a maul catching Leos offside, Davidson kicking the penalty.
From the re-start Ribb brought Simon Chapman into the line at pace creating the extra man for Bartlett to score an unconverted try in the corner to give a half-time score of 27-6.
Ribb's second-half was not as productive as the first but the rugby was just as impressive with one passage of forward play taking the ball from their own 22 to Leos'.
Further pressure put Kirkbride over for a try. Leos' resilience was impressive.
They were under huge pressure in the scrum but took the game to Ribb and looked likely to score but Ribb's defence held.
Ribb then had Matthew Dakin sin-binned for a high tackle and Leos saw their chance and battered the home line.
Despite being a man light in the scrum Ribb hung on and eventually scrambled the ball away. Pressure then moved towards the visitors' end and a further try was prevented, a fine tackle halting Graham Newhouse on the line. Ribb's pressure told and Kirkbride forced himself over for a converted try.
The last 15 minutes were very fragmented as no sooner had Dakin returned than Simon Bolland was penalised then harshly sin-binned for a late tackle.
He had just returned when Chapman was even more harshly treated for a similar offence, the astute Winter kicking past him then running into him.
Despite playing for 25 minutes of the second-half with 14 men the parsimonious home defence refused Leos a score.
This was probably the best rugby played by Ribb this season. Davidson's ability to kick long range goals and the pace in the backline means if Ribb's pack serve up possession Ribb will be a match for anyone in the league particularly if the forwards' improving fitness levels allow them to use their ball skills.
There is no room for complacency as Ribb have more strength in depth than for some time and nobody should take their place for granted.
There is everything to play for and Ribb supporters, who have had mixed viewing this season, should look forward to a rousing finish.
1:26pm Thursday 21st February 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
