Old Crossleyans 19 Yarnbury 16

ON THE same number of points as their Halifax hosts (nine, with only Selby and West Park Leeds below them), Yarnbury managed to lose a game in which they led 16-9 with the 80-minute mark approaching.

The visitors were unchanged from their success at home to York a fortnight earlier, and their confidence from that win was borne out in the first five minutes on the small, wet pitch against opponents who had been beaten 95-27 at Bridlington in their last outing.

From a classic Ian Maycock catch and drive, the visitors drove the ball all of 20 metres to the try line for wing forward Tom Gilchrist to score, fly half Danny Pound missing the long-range conversion.

Crossleyans have been struggling this season due to a lack of numbers and have imported Kiwis in crucial positions – Matthew Thorburn at the back of the scrum and Zane Sanders at fly half – and they had Sanders, Chris Vine and Will Travis back in a strengthened line-up.

Even so, they looked disjointed in the back line, and Yarnbury contained them for most of the half in their own 22-metre area.

Unfortunately, when they broke out on two occasions, Yarnbury conceded penalties to give Ryan Sweeney easy conversions to take the lead at 6-5.

In contrast, Pound missed kickable penalties in the 20th and 22nd minutes.

This didn't seem to matter greatly, however, as the Horsforth side were dominating play, even though the home defence was slowing down Yarnbury's ball from the scrum and rucks.

But the ball was like a bar of soap for both sides, and no further chances were created in a stalemate of a first half.

In the second half, Crossleyans had hooker Declan Hampson yellow carded and after second-choice kicker Steve Riley had hit a post with a penalty, the ball bouncing back into play, their third kicker, full back Kieran Davies, gave them the lead at 8-6 with a penalty after 49 minutes.

As the heavens opened and Yarnbury had a man in the bin, Louis Atha coming on at prop to balance the scrum, Sweeney made it 9-8 to Crossleyans via the woodwork in the 56th minute.

However, Crocs had centre Jack Hammond yellow carded for a neck tackle, Davies restoring Yarnbury's lead, and the hosts' defence finally cracked in the 67th minute when Oliver Cashman charged a kick down on the 22- metre line for Pound to gather smartly and unselfishly pass to winger Eddie Child to cross in the bottom corner for an unconverted try.

This gave Yarnbury a seven-point cushion at 16-9 and surely a win, with their play containing the home side throughout the game!Unfortunately, the game turned on its head in the final minutes with influential second row Ian Maycock being substituted and Davies just missing a long-range penalty in the 72nd minute.

A brawl then broke out and Yarnbury No 8 James Cryan was sin-binned in front of the posts for a late tackle on Old Crossleyans centre Gareth Ott.

The hosts, bidding for a last-gasp try in added time, broke through via Sanders, Sweeney converting to level the scores, but there was still time, with referee Jason Brian having watch problems, for Sweeney to land a winner after another sin-binning for the visitors in front of their own posts.

The home fans were mystified as to how they managed to get four league points out of a match in which they had been on the back foot for so long.