Leodensians 0 Yarnbury 12

Yarnbury halted their losing run in Yorkshire Division Two with a hard-earned win.

They decided to shore up their defence so Stephen Riley switched to inside centre with the lively Stuart Wilson taking over at stand off, and the move paid off.

Yarnbury also welcomed back left winger Ellis Gom- ersall after a long spell out through injury.

The reshuffled back division worked hard to nullify the early threat of the home side’s centre pairing Rob Whatmuff and Danny Thompson.

The scrums were going well for the Horsforth side who were able to nullify the advantage Leo’s had from the strong breeze.

Yarnbury also managed to contain the menace of the home side’s player-coach Dan Hyde when he entered the fray.

The back row of Joe Bennett, Tom Fox and No. 8 Jimmy Cryan tackled agg- ressively around the scrum.

Yarnbury were working the blind side well with some astute kicking from Wilson gaining good ground.

It was Wilson who set up the opening score when he broke through the defensive line before giving an inside pass to Gomersall who scored near the posts. Riley added the conversion. The second half saw Yarnbury use the breeze by kicking to the corners and pinning the Leos back. With frustration growing, referee Glen Cockcroft gave Yarn bury the opportunity to add more pressure.

Scrum half Oliver Cashman opted for a scrum close in rather than a simple penalty and went for the push over. The drive was stopped on the line but Cashman had enough space to dive over to score his side’s second try.

Yarnbury were denied two further pushovers when Cryan lost control of the ball at the last minute.

Russ Gomersall, on as a substitute for his brother Ellis on the wing, was put away for a 30-metre run but the home defence managed to stifle the move.

Yarnbury were delighted to return to winning ways on an afternoon when the whole team responded to some soul searching with coach Bob Hood in midweek.

Tries from Alex Clarke (2), Tom Bowman, James Daff- ern and James Felgate helped Yarnbury Hornets defeat Leodensians 2nds 36-0 in the Yorkshire Merit Table. Danny Pound added four conver-sions and a penalty.