Yarnbury 41 Acklam 18

YARNBURY knew that this was a must-win game in their bid to avoid relegation and they delivered.

Despite being without the influential pair of second row Ian Maycock and centre Jason Avison, they showed no mercy for rock-bottom Acklam.

The return of stand-off Kieran Davies to marshal the young backs was a big plus.

Yarnbury not only had to win the game, they also needed to get the bonus point for scoring four tries.

With their strongest side on the park Yarnbury have shown they can compete with any team in this league but anything short of that and they have been punished.

The omens were not good when prop Lewis Atha twisted an ankle in the warm up and Yarnbury started with him on the bench.

Nonetheless, the first attack nearly led to a try for Yarnbury but the pack were held up short and the ball cleared.

An early exchange of penalties from the rival goal kickers saw the lead gained by Davies cancelled out by Acklam captain Danny Ashton.

Yarnbury were getting on top and prepared to run the ball. A good break from Davies ended with a cross-field run from winger Jack Brown who scored under the posts.

Davies converted and added the extras again when the backs swept down the field and fine inter-passing resulted in a try posts for centre Tom O’Brien.

Acklam realised they had to run the ball rather than kick to relieve the pressure, but after the second row was yellow carded for killing the ball, Yarnbury scored a great pushover try from Joe Bennett after a string of penalties.

Davies converted from out wide. The bonus point was in the bag before half-time but the good work was spoilt at the end of the half. A succession of penalties let Acklam back in the game with a try from winger Josh Abrahams and a penalty from Danny Ashton.

Yarnbury started the second half at pace and increased their lead when wing forward Bennett raced in unopposed from a ruck 20 metres out. The accurate Davies again converted.

Acklam claimed a second try by replacement Paddy O’Brien as they looked for a face-saving point.

Their hopes were killed off when Davies struck a fine penalty from near the halfway line.

A fifth try was run in by hooker Harry Mincello.

Davies converted to complete the afternoon’s scoring.

There was still time for replacement second row James Falgate to be sin binned for a deliberate knock on, but Yarnbury held out in style.

Josh Bell stopped a certain try with a superb tackle.

Yarnbury go above the relegation spots but the final three games will define if it is a good season or not.