YORKSHIRE SILVER TROPHY

Yarnbury 18

North Ribblesdale 15

NORTH RIBBLESDALE lost to a last-minute penalty at Yarnbury in a closely contested Yorkshire Silver Trophy semi-final match on Saturday.

This was a stop-start match with a lot of errors and a lot of penalties, but Yarnbury were pleased to avenge their 27-13 home defeat in the league just over two weeks ago.

They will no doubt get more home wins on their new all weather pitch, which undoubtedly gives them a serious advantage.

Ribb started well, as Will Booth scored after five minutes when Adam Middleton charged down a kick. Mick Thwaite just missed a difficult conversion.

Yarnbury had their first serious attack after ten minutes and got a penalty to cut the lead to 5-3.

Yarnbury then opened the Ribb defence and their winger Luke Cowley surged through out wide for an unconverted try 8-5.

Ribb made a mess of the kick-off and Yarnbury secured the ball, they battered the Ribb defence and scored a converted try through the middle to put them 15-5 in the lead.

The last ten minutes of the first half and the first ten minutes of the second half were very even, as neither side could get any traction.

Ribb were not helped by their stuttering line-out. They took two balls off Yarnbury's, but critically lost four or five to them.

Another factor in the game was a shoulder injury to Peter Cook, which required Thwaite to move to scrum half.

Despite the injury disruption in the middle of the second half, Ribb came back, first Omari Kaup-Samuels scored a good try, well converted from the touchline by Thwaite. In the last few minutes, after a spell of Ribb pressure in the Yarnbury half, he kicked a penalty after Ribb pressure to level the scores at 15 each.

But Yarnbury had the final say, Ribb could not control the kick-off and lost their composure conceding a penalty for offside which Yarnbury easily converted to send their crowd home happy.

No sooner had Ribb kicked off when the final whistle went.

Ribb were disrupted by Peter Cook's injury, but they did score 12 second half points and with more concentration could have won this game.