Youngsters earn their spurs as Yarnbury finally get off the mark

YARNBURY, bedevilled by injuries and the unavailability of senior players throughout September, finally gained a much-needed win.

The visitors, who only included six senior players, were missing influential second row Ian Maycock, who was injured the previous at home to Old Brodleians, the versatile Adam Batson replacing him,

The rest of the Yarnbury side were made up of second-teamers, last season's colts and promising juniors.

Jack Brown continued on the right wing, with Chris Moreton in the centre, young Will Marshall in at full back and Michael Morgan at scrum half.

In the forwards, youngster Reece Leighton was also making his debut, the experienced Jason Avison leading the side from inside centre, as well as having to cope with playmaker Ezra Hinchcliffe.

But Yarnbury started off bossing the game, with diminutive fly half Danny Pound having his best game of the season.

He controlled the ball and the play with some well-judged kicks to put the home side on the back foot, also giving the visitors the lead with a penalty.

Yarnbury were opting to run the ball to keep it away from the home forwards, and from good ball whipped out from an under-pressure scrum, Pound ghosted through the inside-centre channel to score a slick try and add the conversion for 10-0 before Heath had got into their stride.

Hinchcliffe got the Halifax hosts going with a straightforward penalty but strong tackling in defence from Yarnbury kept them away from the try-line.

The visitors lost prop Lewis Atha with an ankle injury, John Dodgson replacing the unlucky youngster, but from another attack in their own half, the ball was moved quickly to Brown, who proceeded to hand off the first attacker and slipped inside two defenders for a well-worked try in the Ellis Gomersall mould, Pound converting off the post to make it 17-3.

With the vocal home crowd silenced, Heath needed something special against a smaller but quicker and determined Yarnbury outfit.

However, conceding a second try proved a wake-up call for the Greetland side, who have recruited well and were one of the favourites for promotion, as can be seen from their narrow defeat the previous week to leaders Bridlington.

Concentrating on their pack's go-forward, Heath scored two tries in quick succession through No 8 Richard Brown as Yarnbury gave away eight successive penalties and had No 8 Reece Leighton sin-binned.

On the stroke of half-time, Hinchcliffe easily converted a close-range penalty to put the home side 18-17 ahead, wiping out all of the good work by the visitors.

The second half was attritional for Yarnbury side as Heath's fly half, New Zealander Jordan Bradbrook, kicked for position on the compact field to set up the home forwards, who knew they were dominant in the scrums.

Despite all the home pressure, however, Yarnbury worked well defensively across the field to keep out the big Heath forwards.

The visitors needed ball to have a chance, and on the one occasion it came, Yarnbury made the most of it.

Heath did not learn their lesson, giving Brown the chance to run, his strength, determination and hand-off allowing a repeat of his first try to put Yarnbury back in the lead, although Pound, who also added a penalty, missed the difficult conversion.

Yarnbury held out in the scrums with dogged determination and spirit, even when they lost a wing forward for the last ten minutes for another technical infringement at the breakdown.

Heath got a converted pushover try near the posts but still trailed by two points and were kept out magnificently to get Yarnbury off and running with a bonus-point win.

This win not only lifted Yarnbury outside a relegation place to third from bottom, but was also a confidence booster for Saturday's home match against Scarborough, and a vindication of the faith in the youngsters shown by the coaching team of Bob Hood and Gary Walker.