North Ribblesdale 10 York 32

NORTH Ribblesdale’s struggles continued as they were defeated by a big York side at Grove Park.

The home pack, missing some key personnel, were lightweight by comparison to their rivals and didn’t help their cause by adopting the wrong tactics.

Ribb needed to move their opponents around the park and make their own greater speed count at the breakdown. Sadly, they failed to do this when they had the wind behind them in the first half.

Their lack of tactical nous, along with their injuries, has been a key factor in their struggles in Yorkshire One this season.

York dominated the early exchanges and with the Ribb scrum under pressure, a series of plays created an overlap for Josh Parker to score a try after nine minutes which Jon Dawes converted Dawes added a penalty as the lead grew to 10-0

Ribb rearranged their scrum and brought the powerful Sam Boatwright on. He made an immediate impact with some hard tackling and running. Crucially, the scrum stabilised.

Ribb’s only score of the first half was a penalty by Michael Thwaite.

The second half was more of the same with York scoring four more tries to Ribb’s two.

The home side actually played better against the wind and a large factor in this was the immaculate play of full back Josh Long.

The youngster did not drop a ball in the swirling wind and provided further evidence that he is going to be a good player.

Ribbs’ tries came from Mick Carr and the hard-working Andy Thwaite. York’s tries were run in by Adam Bowers, Parker, Gareth Singleton and Will Dunlop. Dawes landed one conversion.