YARNBURY lost 15-8 in a closely contested home game against North Ribblesdale on Saturday.

Yarnbury welcomed James Endersby into the centre in place of Joe Pinnick while James Falgate was back in the second row and Tom Goldthorpe in the back row for the injured George Bowen.

Again changes were needed due to unavailability’s and work commitments for this latest league game and was effecting the performances on a weekly basis.

Familiarity breeds stability and this is lacking at the moment with such a large number of players passing through the first 15.

One familiar face was the North Ribblesdale coach Carl Patterson, who is an ex-Yarnbury stand off.

Yarnbury attacked in to the sun down the slope and pinned the visitors down in their own half but were stopped well by a determined defence with good tackles on the Yarnbury back row in particular.

Breaking out from their own 22 up the left side centre Matt Speres, a strong running centre, took two defenders in the tackle and with a clever pass out of the back of his hand fed young winger Freddie Howarth, who outstripped the cover to score under the posts for an easy conversion by stand off Michael Thwaite.

Somewhat against the run of play but to the credit of the home side they continued to take the play to Ribblesdale, as full back George Oldridge pinned them in their own 22 metre area with long punts.

A forward pass from Endersby to full back Oldridge down the right stopped a promising breakaway for Yarnbury.

Yet again the play was brought back when influential prop Lewis Atha looked to have made a clever interception from a Ribblesdale line-out with the park opening up nicely.

To rub salt in the home side’s wounds they were caught offside and Thwaites slipped over a penalty to increase the lead to 10-0.

To make matters worse, the other Ribblesdale winger gathered a dropped pass to race in for a second try, which went unconverted, increasing the lead to 15-0.

Yarnbury took the game to Ribblesdale in determined fashion in the second half with wingers Josh Bateson and Josh Bell getting ball but not breaking the gain line being marshalled into touch as the play tended to be across the pitch rather than over the gain line .Both defences operated well to stop any breakaways.

Disappointingly Yarnbury got into good positions and twice had five metre line-outs after Ribblesdale were penalised but lost both to the opposition second rows stealing the ball and relieving the pressure.

Atha went off with injury and substitute back row James Daffern came on for his first game of the season and Yarnbury pressed for their first try probing down the middle through Falgate and second row Paul Kernick driving it in down the middle of the park.

A penalty was all they got through full back Oldridge as the game petered out until a slipped short pass from captain James White put Oldridge through the gap for a try worth a point at the end of the match but the final score of 15-8 meant another defeat for Yarnbury.

Yarnbury need a settled side and a win to move forward to their new all weather pitch which is now ready for the next home game on Saturday, November 3, when the celebrations at the grand opening will include the Leodiensians league game and a full weekend programme of games and celebrations.