W 26-17

By Charlie Hopper

Scarborough RUFC made it nine wins in a row and secured their place in Regional Two North East for another season after they beat Dronfield, 26-17, at a packed Silver Royd.

In need of a win, to avoid relegation, Matty Jones’ side were playing into a strong wind and found it tough in the early exchanges. The visitors made the momentum count and scored in the 11th minute when a maul was allowed to walk towards the Scarborough line and score for 5-0. In the 27th minute, the home side were reduced to 14 men when Phil Watson was shown a yellow card for a high tackle but this didn’t stop his side from going in search of a way back into the game. Two chances were squandered before a try, on the stroke of half-time, gave the Silver Royd faithful something to cheer about. Prop Ropeti Ropeti found a way over in the corner. Tom Harrison kicked the difficult conversion to give his side a 7-5 lead at the break.

Scarborough then made the perfect start to the second-half when Jack Holt received the ball from Sam Dawson and managed to find a gap in the defence to score. Harrison made it two kicks from two attempts with the conversion for 14-5. The visitors then responded with a try of their own in the 49th minute when Farrell finished off a breakaway move to make it 14-12. In 53rd minute, Scarborough’s third try of the afternoon was secured when Tom Ratcliffe intercepted a pass and ran half the length of the pitch to score. The momentum continued to shift between both sides and in the 66th minute the visitors hit back. Longden broke through to score another breakaway try to leave his side trailing 19-17. In the dying stages of the match, the bonus point was secured for Jones’ side when Dawson capped off a brilliant performance with a try of his own. Harrison added the conversion to give his side a 26-17 win and rounded off an astonishing second-half of the season.

Scarborough are in action at West Hartlepool next weekend in the Papa John’s cup.