Yarnbury 35 Ripon 10

Yarnbury switched their focus back to their Yorkshire Division Two promotion challenge and secured a victory which keeps them in the hunt.

They were forced to make a number of changes to the side which brushed aside North Shield 61-5 to reach the quarter-finals of the RFU Senior.

The influential Carl Paterson was one of the absentees so Stuart Wilson moved to stand-off with Lee Mortimer starting at full back.

There was also a shuffle in the pack with Tom Gilcrist switching from hooker to replace James Barrett in the back row. That created the opportunity for youngster Chris Doyle to hook.

Yarnbury were expecting a tough game and that was exactly what they got. Ripon stunned their hosts by establishing an early 10-0 lead.

A try-scoring opportunity went begging in the opening minutes when Rob Rigby was unable to gather a kick ahead which had left him in the clear.

Ripon registered the game’s first points when young James Falgate was penalised for holding on the floor and scrum half Scott McAra kicked the goal.

The visitors extended their lead when Yarnbury dropped the ball in midfield as they attempted to run the ball out of defence.

An old fashioned hack on by Joe Duffield saw him gather the ball and score near the posts. McAra’s conversion made it 10-0 after 20 minutes.

Yarnbury began to apply pressure but wasted opportunities.

They finally opened their account when a penalty was kicked to the corner.

From the resulting line No8 Jimmy Cryan scored after a well-worked catch and drive move.

Yarnbury were boosted by the score and soon added a second try when the ball was moved wide for Jason Avison to send winger Rob Rigby in for a try at the corner.

Yarnbury sensed further points and with Wilson moving the ball at every opportunity they material-ised.

Mortimer made a good break before passing to Rigby.

The winger stabbed the ball towards the line and Avison won the race to the touchdown. Rigby was proving a real handful and three minutes later he jinked his way over the line for the fourth try which earned a bonus point.

The home side started slowly after the break and McAra missed two simple penalties for the North Yorkshire side.

Having missed their chance to reduce the deficit, Ripon were then hit by three more tries – two from winger Ellis Gomersall and the other from Ian Maycock.

The first of the tries came when won provided quick line-out ball which was moved quickly to Gomersall who scored.

Minutes later a poor clearance kick was gobbled up by Mortimer who cut through a scrambling defence before giving a try-scoring pass to Gomersall.

Mobile second row Maycock was determined not to miss out on the fun. He dummied the pass before charging over the line.

It put the seal on the victory – one in which all seven conversions were missed. Paterson’s deadly boot was sorely missed. They surely will not be able to afford missing so many kicks in tighter games