W 36-13

By Charlie Hopper

Scarborough managed to overcome a first-half deficit and the loss of their prop Benny Blackall to battle back and beat Driffield 32-16 at Silver Royd on Saturday.

Scarborough were boosted by the return of many of their regular first team players ahead of kick-off but were put under increased pressure early in the game. In the 3^rd minute the pressure was momentarily released as fly-half Tom Ratcliffe broke clear after stepping a defender but his off-load was knocked on by Angus Frend. The shaky start was made worse as flanker Euan Govier was given a yellow for a tip-tackle on a Driffield man. The visitors went for the corner and in the 9^th minute fly-half James Watts kicked a penalty for 3-0. Ratcliffe then had chance to register his sides first points of the afternoon but his kick drifted wide of the posts, the opposition then chose to run the ball from their own line. The ball was stolen back and Simon Smith’s side had a 5m scrum just out from the line. In the 14^th minute the in-form Jonty Holloway received the ball out wide and danced through the tackles to cross over for a converted try, to leave it at 7-3. In the 20^th minute the visitors snatched back the lead with an unconverted try after Flanker Tom Sowersby fought his way through the defence to give his side the lead at 8-7. The lead was extended even further after Lock James Dinsdale managed to stretch over to score another unconverted try to leave the score at 13-7. Straight after the restart Australian Benny Blackall broke clear of the defence but was soon taken out where he suffered a horrific injury which resulted in an early half-time called by the referee. The prop was later taken to hospital having been stuck on the pitch for around 45 minutes.

Both sides regrouped for the second-half and in the 46^th minute the Silver Royd outfit regained the lead thanks to Drew Govier. His brother Euan initially broke clear of the defence and the ball found its way wide as Drew crashed over. Ratcliffe added the extras with a difficult conversion in the corner for 14-13. 9 minutes later Watts kicked his side back into the lead at 16-14. The game then took a momentum shift as Scarborough managed to get themselves into a strong position in front of the Driffield posts. The scrum pushed forward and forced scrum-half James Robinson to knock-on. The mistake proved costly as in the 60^th minute Jordi Wakeham took the penalty quickly in the corner and crashed over for an unconverted try for 19-16. 3 minutes later and they had another chance to apply more pressure after a penalty was overturned for talking back to the referee and they chose to kick to the corner. From the resulting line-out, the referee awarded a penalty and Ratcliffe stretched the lead to 22-16. Continued ill-discipline from the Kelleythorpe outfit presented Boro with the chance to finish the game late on. The line-out was won deep in the opposition half and Ratcliffe managed to kick a superb drop goal to extend his sides advantage to 25-16. The table-topping outfit weren’t finished just yet, a driving maul in the picked-up pace and Stuart Smyth powered over for a converted try sparking wild celebrations from the players and crowd. Scarborough winning 32-16 to extend their lead at the top of North One East.

Teams

Scarborough: 1. joe nellist 2. stuart smyth 3. matty jones 4. luke brown 5. will leah 6. chris purdy 7. euan govier 8. drew govier 9. jordi wakeham 10. tom ratcliffe 11. joe marshall 12. billy parker 13. angus frend 14. aaron wilson 15. jonty holloway
Substitutes: 16. benny blackall 17. jordan holloway 18. jack anderson (all used)

Scarborough News "Man of the Match": luke brown

Luke had another influential game for Scarborough, other noticeable performances from Joe Nellist, Stuart Smyth and Tom Ratcliffe