Young guns help keep Yarnbury at top of table

Yarnbury were thankful to their ever-expanding pool of young players as they were forced to make eight changes due to holiday commitments.

Yarnbury have now used 30 players in just three matches so they are justifiably pleased to be topping Yorkshire Two with a 100 per-cent record.

Wetherby exerted early pressure through their powerful pack but the Yarnbury defensive line held firm.

The visitors took the lead when a Wetherby defensive punt was caught by winger Jack Brown.

He set off on a characteristic winding run across the field and past the gain line before passing to his opposite wing Alex Clark who beat several defenders to score at the posts.

With Jarrod Huss converting the league leaders had a 7-0 lead, but Wetherby hit back. Their forwards exerted pressure on a Yarnbury pack that was missing its regular second row pairing.

After forcing several penalties their No8 Paul Mimms went over for a pushover try which full back Billy Coyle converted.

The Horsforth side were pushing for another score and were stopped by a mixture of good Wetherby defence and poor final passes.

Captain Jimmy Cryan was making some crunching tackles in the middle of the park as he led by example.

Wetherby took the lead before half-time with an unconverted try by second row Tom Bottomley when he stretched out of a ruck to score.

The second half saw Yarnbury playing down the slope and with the breeze. Good runs from Alex Clark and Jack Brown tested the solid home defence.

Whenever Wetherby attacked, full back George Oldridge and centre Huss pushed them back with good clearance kicks. Oldridge also made two last- ditch tackles to keep winger Jack Kaye off the scoresheet.

Yarnbury reduced the deficit when Huss converted a penalty to close the scores as Yarnbury increased the pressure.

Their efforts were rewarded and pressure told in the final quarter when Yarnbury moved the ball wide left for Nathan Benton to make the whitewash for the winning score.

Substitute back row Martin Rainey was impressive in the final quarter when Yarnbury toughed it out in the final minutes for a good win to remain unbeaten and clear at the top of the division when other contenders slipped back.