North Ribblesdale 30

Yarnbury 39

YARNBURY's strong centres ran through a shaky defence as North Ribblesdale lost a Yorkshire Two encounter at Grove Park on Saturday.

There was a huge disparity in tries, with Ribb scoring three to Yarnbury's seven.

Once again, Mick Thwaite's nerveless place kicking kept Ribb in the game when the try count was very much against them.

Ribb started against the wind playing away from the clubhouse, after some initial sparring.

Josh Bell, Yarnbury's left, winger went over for an unconverted try.

Ribb' pack got a good scrum drive on and Ian Close finished off a good break by Omari Kaup-Samuels at scrum-half to score wide out on the left, Thwaite kicking a good conversion.

Yarnbury scored another try almost from the kick-off with a clean break by skipper James White, who put Bell in for another unconverted try.

Ribb drove forward from the kick-off. A powerful burst by Ryan Sumner, carried on by Adam Middleton, caught Yarnbury offside for Thwaite to kick a penalty to bring the score to 10-10 after 20 minutes.

The next try came from another midfield break by Josh Bateson who put Bell in for his second, which was converted by George Oldridge.

Ribb gained enough ground to allow Thwaite to kick another penalty to give Yarnbury a half-time lead of 17-13.

Ribb started the second half brightly, forcing a penalty kicked by Thwaite to bring them within a point.

There was a spell of even play for ten minutes before White again sliced through Ribb's midfield for another unconverted try on 60 minutes, and almost from the kick-off and scored another converted try.

Worse was to come when they scored two more unconverted tries to finish their scoring at 39 points.

Ribb looked down and out when they incurred a yellow card. However, they rallied strongly at the end of the game with tries, both converted by Thwaite, to finish the scoring at 39-30. Both tries came from scrums with Richard Wood and Sumner getting them.

Yarnbury's lack of a goal kicker masked their midfield superiority, and Thwaites regular scoring of penalties kept Ribb in touch.

The pack played well, but the outfield defence was outclassed allowing the Yarnbury centres to make breaks at will.

Despite overall forward superiority, Ribb are unable to control a game and conceded a lot of turnover ball despite the manful efforts of John Padley, who had another outstanding game.

Tom Maudsley also played well with Wood also working hard and Kaup-Samuels developing well at scrum-half. Ribb's downfall in this game was shaky defence.