2XV
Matches
Sat 21 Nov 2015  ·  Central/North District Merit Table
Wetherby RUFC
2XV
Tries: M Hawkins, T StearnPenalties: B CaleYellow Carded: M Youlden
13
8
Ripon 3
Crusaders continue winning ways.

Crusaders continue winning ways.

Sean Lally24 Nov 2015 - 09:40
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Wetherby Crusaders pick up another victory, scraping past Ripon 3s 13-8.

Having won there opening 11 games in the Yorkshire Central/North Merit Table, Wetherby Crusaders were full of confidence going into there game Merit Table game against Ripon 3's. Ripon had beaten Wetherby Crusaders in a preseason fixture 37-22 so the Reds didn't underestimate there North Yorkshire opponents

The Crusaders started the game brightly and dominated territory and pinned Ripon back deep in there own half. Wetherby were awarded a penalty 10 meters out and decided to run it in. Tom O'Sullivan received the ball and appeared to ground it but the referee gave a penalty for Ripon due to a double movement.

Wetherby continued to apply pressure but couldn't turn the pressure into points, despite having numerous men over on several occasions.

Around the 15 minute mark there was a break in play due to a Ripon players injury. We all wish him a speedy recovery.

Wetherby finally broke through shortly after the stop in play. The ball came out from a ruck in center field to the left side of the field, where Wetherby had men over. Sean Lally drew the last defender in and slipped in Matt Hawkins for the opening try of the game. Billy Cale could not add the extras. 5-0.

The momentum of the game shifted following the Wetherby try and the game became a lot more even. The game continued to break down with handling errors from both teams.

From a poor kick from a penalty from Ripon, Billy Cale fielded the ball around half way and thread his way through several Ripon defenders before offloading to Sean Lally who looked destined to score. However Lally knocked on, despite claims the ball was ripped from his grasp.

Shortly before the break for half time, Ripon got on the board when they went down the blind side off a ruck where they had men over and the covering players were left helpless. The conversion was missed. 5-5.

The second half kicked off, and followed in the same vein as the end of the first half. Wetherby's front row of Matt Harrison, Matt Bartle and Scotty Wallis scrummaged well, but the game continued to go from scrum to scrum throughout the half.

Billy Cale added a penalty half way through the second half to give the Reds a three point advantage but Ripon soon hit back with a penalty of there own from around 45 meters out.

Wetherby picked up the winning try, when man of the match and captain Jack Barthrope hit a short line and made great ground before slipping in Tom Stearn for the winning try. Billy Cale hit the crossbar on the conversion attempt making the score 13-8 to Wetherby.

Mike Youlden picked up a yellow card on the 72nd minute in strange circumstances but Wetherby held on to win a close game.

Wetherby have two weekends off from Merit Table action but are hoping to pick up a game in the fixtures pool for next weekend.

Match details

Match date

Sat 21 Nov 2015

Kickoff

14:15

Meet time

13:00

Instructions

On pitch by 13:15 for warm up.

Competition

Central/North District Merit Table
Team overview
Further reading