Yarnbury 24, Moortown 14

Yarnbury only made had three changes for this SSE Yorkshire Division Two match, with Rob Rigby coming in at centre for the injured Stephen Riley, Russ Gommersall joining the second row for the unavailable Adam Batson and James Barrett returning to the back row for the injured Tom Fox.

The home defence held firm for ten minutes before the line was broached on the blind-side, where hooker Dave O’Leary exploited a gap and crashed over, fly half Mark Wilkinson nailing a fine touchline conversion in the crosswind.

How the away side were in the bottom half of the league table was baffling at this juncture. On the other hand, Yarnbury were squandering chances when they attacked with over-elaborate passing and poor handling.

A penalty gave Yarnbury the chance on the five-metre line to catch and drive at the line-out but the ball was lost in the breeze. Jimmy Cryan was then held up over the line from more pressure.

In the second quarter, Yarnbury began to take charge, and from good pressure deep in the attacking half, quick ball from the scrum out wide left saw second-row Ian Maycock break through easily to score.

From further pressure and a number of rucks deep into Moortown territory, scrum half and captain Oliver Cashman scored Yarnbury’s second try.

With the Moortown back line pushing up too far and too early, the scrum half dummied and shot through the defence to score under the posts, Jones converting.

Prior to this, Yarnbury should have capitalised on a fumble by Moortown full back Dominic Gray, but the kick on was spilled by No 8 Cryan with the line gaping and three Yarnbury men in the clear.

The home forwards were now asking questions, and from a five- metre scrum and recycled ball, in-form second row Maycock crashed over again, but the conversion was missed.

In the second half, Yarnbury’s defence was in command, winger Ellis Gommersall and centres Jason Avison and Rigby putting in some big hits.

Yarnbury's pack were working tirelessly but Joe Bennett was then sin-binned and Moortown took advantage when Yarnbury were using fast hands to break out of defence through a floating pass, which was intercepted by winger Mark Docking, who scored, the conversion also being added.

But Yarnbury’s control was showed by the bonus-point try for Rigby, from Avison’s break, Jones converting.

On Saturday, Yarnbury host Yorkshire Division One Heath in the Yorkshire Shield second round.

* Alex Clark scored three tries as a beefed-up Yarnbury won their Third Team Merit League match 31-10 at spirited Moortown.

Captain and flanker Tom Whitfield was on the scoresheet again, with Danny Pound adding a try and three conversions.