NORTH Rib travelled to Doncaster expecting a torrid time from an alleged huge home pack. The forwards were physically matched, but it was the slick handling from the Wheatley backs that ultimately decided this contest.

Ribb commenced down the slope but after only twelve minutes their classy full back Gillvray had twice sliced open the Ribb defence to score. He converted one to give an ominous 15 -3 scoreline, Ribbs points coming from a Michael Thwaite penalty. It looked like being a long afternoon but turned out to be anything but.

Ribbs pack more than competed and won some territorial advantage but their only reward was another penalty from Thwaite to leave the score 15 - 6 at the interval.

It looked like a rear-guard damage limitation exercise was to be the order of the day as Wheatley had the slope in their favour, however this Ribblesdale set of forwards thought differently. They took the game to Wheatley and were rewarded with an unconverted try from impressive number eight John Marshall after shunting the home side backwards.

The home side then scored two tries in quick succession from wingers Watson and Richardson. That brought an end to the scoring in a game played in atrocious conditions. For Ribb, Frankie Brown worked tirelessly as did the evergreen Michael Carr and the standout forward was a very dominant Matthew Close.