2ND XV MERIT LEAGUE GAME

SKIPTON A 10 – 5 AIREBOROUGH A

Giving three stone a man weight advantage up front is always tough. This is what Skipton had to put with on their return home after three weeks on the road. They spent the first twenty minutes without the ball. To their credit their line wasn’t breached. Line-outs, scrums and driving mauls were the order of the day. Not pretty.

The visitors also had two powerful, stepping centres, they brought the ball back to their forwards, continuing their battering of Skipton. Two tackles summed up the home sides’ answer to this, Vinny Murphy picked up a prop and dumped him backwards from whence he’d came. Then five minutes later, a charging second-row was stopped in his tracks by flanker Jim Wade, who proceeded to drive him back a full fifteen yards. Astonishing.

The fringe defence was good and the three-quarters precision timing in defence, meant the visitors were always there or thereabouts the Skipton twenty-two but held reasonably comfortably. To break the deadlock, one of the few back moves of the day saw right-wing Hamish Munro, steam inside off his wing, off-load to Mick Richards, making a welcome return to Sandylands. He angled in the opposite direction, at pace, floating out a beautiful pass for Vinny Murphy to register his second try in two games.

Half-time 5-0 to Skipton.

Second-half, more of the same. Line-out, driving maul, scrum. Eventually the dam had to break, Aireborough getting over from close in. With ten minutes to go, this looked to have finished the scoring. No, second glorious back-move of the day. Burke, Munro to full-back and captain Matt Wilson, timing his pass to perfection for left-winger Chris Wilkinson to administer the coup-de-grace. Last seminal moment. Aireborough line-out on the Skipton try-line. Second-row Ash Greaves soaring highest to steal, allowing his half-backs the chance to clear their lines.

Real backs-to-the-wall defensive effort. Winning maximum 25% possession, giving away size all round the park. Sheer dogged defence and determination saw Skipton home.

Prop Will Bellas made his debut, standing steadfast against the bigger man, even having enough in the tank to have a twenty-five yard rampage, with five minutes to go. Huge defensive duties carried out manfully by fly-half James Burke and flankers Chris Sheehan and Jim Wade. However, man-of-the-match was No. 8 and pack leader Vinny Murphy. He tackled everything, made half-a-dozen turnovers and generally led from the front throughout. Superb. Nobody deserved a try more.

21 October 2006 – Merit Table – Home

Team

15 Matt Wilson 14 Hamish Munro 13 Mick Richards

12 Matthew Cox 11 Chris Wilkinson 10 James Burke

9 John Kulik 8 Vinny Murphy 7 Chris Sheehan

6 Jim Wade 5 Paul Shearer 4 Ash Greaves

3 Tony Haworth 2 Dave Mitten 1 Will Bellas

Subs

Paul Lacy Gordon Fisher Peter Dutton

Tries

Chris Wilkinson Vinny Murphy