Yorkshire Division One: Hullensians 27 Yarnbury 7

YARNBURY were again unlucky with injuries, losing both stand-in captain and influential centre Jason Avison and full back Will Marshall to injuries prior to their crucial trip to Hull.

The visitors' pack was looking strong but the back line lacked experience, fielding willing players without too much first-team experience on a compact pitch where one mistake could mean five points lost.

Ian Maycock, Joe Bennett and Paul Kernick returned to the back row and second row respectively, and with Tom Holden playing a second game after a long injury the forwards would provide good ball for the backs.

Jarrod Huss was in at fly half, with George Oldridge moving to full back.

Sam Oxley was in on the wing, and the replacements were prop Dan Penman and backs Adam Bennett and Damien Reid.

Yarnbury were on the defensive from the start and conceded early penalties, and were immediately punished as Hullensians full back Chris Loud converted one of them.

The visitors then pressurised the Hull defence without reward before back row Jason Conroy managed to get over from a scrum for the first try, converted by Loud.

With scrum half Chris Smith, who was on the end of a sweeping move, scoring an unconverted try, Yarnbury needed a quick response.

And they got it through their forwards, who were getting over the gain line.

From a penalty, they drove for the line from the resulting scrum and back-rower Adam Batson twisted nicely through defenders to score, Oldridge converting to get Yarnbury back in the game.

The away side had been fortunate down the left wing on two occasions when Hullensians worked the ball wide for wing Josh Langford to get away but he was stopped short by a scrambling defence.

The second half was a tale of missed opportunities, either slow ball or knock-ons at crucial times stopping Yarnbury's momentum.

The danger was coming from the forwards but the home defence held on well, and after the break Hullensians scored two tries through winger Oliver Emanuel, through a kind bounce, and then Ryan Barron from close range, the prop taking three defenders with him as they closed to stop the try.

Loud converted the second try to complete the scoring.

With only four league games left to escape the drop, it will be a tight-run thing for the rest of the season as second-from-bottom Yarnbury desperately need points to stay in the division.

On this performance, Yarnbury they need more guile in the three-quarters to capitalise on ball from the forwards.