North Ribblesdale RU
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Ribb let this one get away
North Ribblesdale 3 Pocklington 12
NORTH Ribblesdale have lost the last seven games at home to Pocklington and through a lack of clinical finishing they continued this dire trend.
Although they started strongly keeping play in the visitors' 22 for the opening 20 minutes they came away empty handed. Despite having three kickable penalties they opted for scrums and failed to get over.
In hindsight they should have taken any points that came their way into the stiff breeze.
In addition the old white line fever had the forwards battling away at a resolute defence rather than giving the backs a go.
Jonathan Richards showed the way with a sharp break off a short ball from Ben Topham but he was just hauled down short.
This was the last time the backs had any ball going forward. Following the early Ribblesdale pressure Pocklington battled into their half and after some pressure scored wide on the right through prop Morton.
Turning round an unconverted try down with a stiff wind in your favour in the second-half is not a bad position to be in but Ribb won little good ball all the second-half and they could not use Tom Davidson's boot to play for position.
Their only reward in the second-half was a Davidson penalty, although he was narrowly wide with another.
Late in the game Ribblesdale eschewed three kickable penalties as they needed to score twice to win. If only they had taken them in the first- half.
As it was they allowed an improving young Pocklington side into the game and conceded a converted try by Houghton into the wind which put them 12-3 down with 20 minutes to go.
Ribb now had to score twice and playing catch-up rugby is dangerous for a side that tried to force the game. Slinging impossible passes out of contact instead of consolidating their position Ribb lost more and more turnover ball.
The visitors' desperate defence was constantly off-side and gave away penalties happily.
Pocklington were winning more and more possession and although Ribb had fleeting chances they could not seize the opportunity.
Their problems were compounded when James Dugdale, one of their most consistent forwards, came off injured. Ribb's line-out was reduced to Dean Stacey who battled manfully to win his own ball.
The match ended with Ribb on the attack but it was too late.
There are always positives and Ribb are unlikely to take a win for granted in the future. They will kick penalties on offer and not underestimate the opposition.
Pocklington thoroughly deserved their win which was due to obdurate defence and a battling attitude to the game, particularly by their scrum-half and open side.
Ribb's backs looked dangerous but were short of quality possession.
This season has been full of matches that got away and this was probably the best example.
2:32pm Thursday 6th March 2008
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