Old Brodleians 39 Yarnbury 24

YARNBURY are hoping that the new year will see an upturn in their fortunes as some of their experienced players return to bolster the work of their promising youngsters.

Despite slipping to the bottom of Yorkshire One following this defeat and North Ribblesdale's 17-13 win over Acklam, they will be encouraged by the fighting spirit which earned them a bonus point for scoring four tries against their battle-hardened rivals.

Once again Yarnbury were forced to make changes to the team that beat North Ribblesdale in their previous match.

John Dodgson came in at prop and Pete Kernick took over in the second row for the influential James Falgate.

Stand off George Oldridge made his debut in place of the holidaying Kieran Davies while Darren Reid took over from Stephen Riley at centre.

Yarnbury attacked from the start but it was Old Brodleians who scored first with a penalty from scrum half Tom Breakwell.

The response was impressive. Full back Will Marshall outpaced the defence and managed to pass off the floor when tackled for winger Connor Moreton to score out wide.

New Zealand hooker Jared Bailey got over for a Brodleians try before Marshall came into the line and skipped round the defence for a try which he converted himself.

Yarnbury were conceding field position by giving too many penalties away and Brodleians capitalised when left wing Tom Wilson scored a try which Breakwell converted for a 15-12 lead when the visitors were down to 14 men after wing forward Callum Fawcett received a yellow card for an infringement at a ruck.

After the change round Yarnbury were penalised or a high tackle by Joe Bennett and Brodleians made the extra man count with Jonny Cole, Zack Thompson and Tom Wilson scoring tries and Breakwell adding a conversion.

With Bennett back on Yarnbury put pressure on the home side and managed to score two tries to gain a precious bonus point

Firstly captain and centre Jason Avison managed to pick up and crash over the line. Then, after the home side scored scored their final try through winger Michael Briggs which was converted by Breakwell, Yarnbury again spun the ball right after good forward work for winger Jack Brown to score.

It left Yarnbury reflecting on what the result might have been if they had kept a full compliment on the field.