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Ripon 11 Skipton 3

Skipton lost at Ripon on Saturday thus bringing to an end their best winning run for years.

This enabled close rivals Old Brodleians to leapfrog the Reds and go top with Skipton now second in the table.

To get it in perspective- Brods and Skipton remain clear leaders at the top of the table but nevertheless this was a setback for the Reds albeit more likely to be a blip rather than a problem.

All credit must go to Ripon for their victory but why Skipton underperformed is difficult to understand. Maybe it was overconfidence, maybe it was dislike of facing the northeast gale in the first half or maybe it was falling victim of the frequently blown referee's whistle.

In reality, it was probably complacency in the first half on the assumption that they would recover in the second half. But when the wind dropped calm in the second half the anticipated advantage disappeared and Ripon clung onto their lead and thwarted Skipton's fight back.

The game started as good as ever. For the first ten minutes Skipton exerted constant pressure and a home spectator was heard to say "Skipton will win by 50 points". How wrong he was!

Ripon, having won the toss, knew the benefit of the strong wind and were increasingly kicking high balls which car-ried far in the wind putting Skipton on the back foot. Although the Reds defence was superb as ever making try scoring unlikely, by getting in sight of Skipton's line Ripon gained the opportunity to punt over two easy penalty kicks and were then 6-0 in the lead. Then just before half-time they sneaked in a try which, although unconverted, gave them a 11-0 half-time lead.

Nevertheless it still seemed likely that Skipton would power back in the second half. However, in reality the second half was surreal. Although the Reds totally dominated and constantly occupied Ripon's half they seemed to lack co-hesion and never scored mainly due to errors and sloppy handling. The forwards kept pressing and particularly Phil Crossman, Iain Sneddon, Michael Snowden and Moa Meki were prominent with thrusting bursts but whenever the ball moved out the move came to nothing due to errors.

The result might have been very different but for a bizarre decision mid-way through the second half which disal-lowed a Reds' try. After a Ripon infringement, the referee played the advantage rule enabling Alex Naylor to sprint over for what seemed a perfect try. The referee then overruled the touch judge and decided that a foot had gone into touch. Returning to the original penalty spot, Alex Naylor slotted the kick over to get Skipton three points but had the possible seven points been allowed it would have altered the game and the result.

The final whistle brought sheer delight for the Ripon supporters but flat disappointment for the many Skipton sup-porters who had travelled anticipating another good win.

There were two positives from the game. Winger Lee Shaw played his first full game for the Reds and staked his claim for a regular place in the team. He was particularly impressive in his safe catching of long high balls from the opposition.

Also notable was the debut of Skipton's latest signing, Samoan kiwi Brydon Maiava who came off the bench in the second half and showed both strength and style playing at centre.

11:10am Monday 12th November 2007

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