RUGBY
UNION –
RIPON 11 - 3
SKIPTON
Skipton lost
at Ripon on Saturday thus bringing to an end their best winning run for
years. This enabled close rivals Old
Brodleians to leapfrog the Reds and go top with Skipton now second in the
table.
To get it in
perspective – Old Brods and Skipton remain clear leaders at the top of the
table but, nevertheless, this was a setback for the Reds, albeit more likely to
be a blip rather than a problem.
All credit
must go to Ripon for their victory but why Skipton underperformed is difficult
to understand. Maybe it was
overconfidence, maybe it was dislike of facing the North East gale in the first
half or maybe it was falling victim of the frequently blown referee’s whistle.
In reality, it
was probably complacency in the first half on the assumption that they would
recover in the second half. But, when
the wind dropped calm in the second half, the anticipated advantage disappeared
and Ripon clung onto their lead and thwarted Skipton’s fight back.
The game
started as good as ever. For the first
ten minutes Skipton exerted constant pressure and a home spectator was heard to
say “Skipton will win by fifty points”.
How wrong he was!
Ripon, having
won the toss, knew the benefit of the strong wind and were increasingly kicking
high balls which carried far in the wind putting Skipton on the back foot. Although the Reds defence was superb as ever
making try scoring unlikely, by getting in sight of Skipton’s line Ripon gained
the opportunity to punt over two easy penalty kicks and were then 6-0 in the
lead. Then just before half-time they
sneaked in a try which, although unconverted, gave them a 11-0 half-time lead.
Nevertheless
it still seemed likely that Skipton would power back in the second half. However, in reality the second-half was
surreal. Although the Reds totally
dominated and constantly occupied Ripon’ half they seemed to lack cohesion and
never scored mainly due to errors and sloppy handling. The forwards kept pressing and particularly
Phil Crossman, Iain Sneddon, Michael Snowden and Moa Meki were prominent with
thrusting bursts but, whenever the ball moved out, the move came to nothing due
to errors.
The result
might have been very different but for a bizarre decision mid-way through the
second half which disallowed a Reds try.
After a Ripon infringement, the referee played the advantage rule
enabling Alex Naylor to sprint over for what seemed a perfect try. The referee then overruled the touch judge
and decided that a foot had gone into touch.
Returning to the original penalty spot, Alex Naylor slotted the kick
over to get Skipton three points but, had the possible seven points been
allowed, it would have altered the game and the result.
The final
whistle brought sheer delight for the Ripon supporters but flat disappointment
for the many Skipton supporters who had travelled anticipating another good
win.
Two positives
from the game; Winger Lee Shaw played his first full game for the Reds and staked
his claim for a regular place in the team.
He was particularly impressive in his safe catching of long high balls
from the opposition. Also notable was
the debut of Skipton’s latest signing, Samoan Kiwi Brydon Maiava who came off
the bench in the second half and showed both strength and style playing at
centre.