Yarnbury 17 Heath 20

Yarnbury took the opportunity to field several squad players against their Halifax rivals in this second round tie.

It was a good chance to see how they would perform against opposition from the league above.

Young Danny Pound was given a start in the key role of stand off with the experienced Stephen Riley alongside him at inside centre.

Russ Gomersall continued at second row and Jack Butler was a forward substitute.

Yarnbury started brightly with the first try coming from left wing Elis Gomersall.

He kicked ahead before beating the Heath defence to score an unconverted try in the corner.

Heath were stung by the score and forced Yarnbury to defend desperately.

The home side were repeatedly penalised by Ilkley referee Graham Hill and the Yarnbury manager Kevin Robinson was yellow carded for questioning his decisions.

Ezra Hinchcliffe, who was looking lively from the start, kicked a penalty for Heath before scoring a try after a quick tap penalty by scrum half Peter Birkett. The conversion made it 10-5.

Yarnbury replied almost immediately with their best attacking period of the game. Their pack took control and from a catch and drive swept the ball out left with right winger Chris Flowers coming into the line and making for the corner for a trademark try to level the scores.

The home side were pressing from the start of the second half and probing for an opening in the backs.

They missed several opportunities to score while Heath were down to 14 men when influential No. 8 Darren Neilly was in the sin bin.

Yarnbury introduced experienced stand off Carl Paterson for the last quarter and he fed winger Lee Mortimer out wide to weave his way over the line for a try which Paterson converted from out wide.

Unfortunately Heath pressure near the posts saw wing forward Hamish Pratt score a try which Hinchcliffe converted to tie the scores.

In th elast few minutes yet another Yarnbury infringement proved costly as Hinchcliffe slotted a long-range penalty to clinch the tie.

With Yarnbury playing in the National Cup in February their Shield exit provides a little room in their fixture list.