RUGBY
UNION –
YARNBURY 11 – 7
SKIPTON
Despite
leading 7-3 in the second half, two careless lapses in the dying minutes saw
the Reds lose this cup game and exit the competition.
The
consolation for Skipton is that they can now concentrate all their efforts on
the league, where they remain one of the favourites for promotion and good news
later in the afternoon was to hear that Pocklington, one of the threats in the
league campaign, had lost their league catch-up game against Goole.
As far as
Saturday’s game was concerned, it was frankly a dull, low scoring affair played
on a heavy soggy pitch and half time arrived with the only score being a single
penalty kick giving Yarnbury a 3-0 half time lead.
In the second
half Skipton seemed to up the pace and a try from speedy winger Liam Ray,
playing again after a long injury lay off, put the Reds in front. A well taken conversion by Brydon Maiava,
despite the difficult angle, saw Skipton gain further points and a 7-3 lead
looked promising. But then two lapses
were costly for the Reds.
Firstly they
incurred a penalty right in front of the posts enabling Yarnbury to be gifted
an easy penalty kick and the score was now a tense 7-6 slender lead for
Skipton. There can be no excuse for the
second lapse. Skipton were again penalized for an infringement and presumably,
because this was in midfield, the Reds did not see the threat. Yarnbury, however, were more awake, took a
quick tap penalty and then motored through a “sleeping” Skipton defence to
score a try and win the game in these dying minutes.
Both teams
were evenly matched as one would expect because, although this was a cup game, they
are in the same league and both are front runners. On Saturday, Yarnbury certainly deserved to
win because they were sharper and the lesson to the Reds is that any lapse in
concentration can be costly.