W 14-12

By Charlie Hopper

Scarborough made it five wins in a row on Saturday afternoon after they battled past second place Old Brodleians, 14-12, to move themselves out of the Regional Two North East relegation places.

They made a fast start to the game and dominated the early exchanges before racing into a 7-0 lead in the fourth minute. Jordan Holloway spotted a gap in defence and darted through to score. Fly-half Tom Ratcliffe made light work of the conversion. The lead was doubled just minutes later when Jonty Holloway followed in his brothers’ footsteps to finish off a lovely team move in the corner. Ratcliffe kicked a difficult conversion for 14-0. Scarborough continued to cause problems inside the Brods half but were halted by a series of unforced errors. In the 34^th minute, winger Oliver Briggs looked to have scored in the corner, but the linesman judged him to have put a foot in touch when he scored. The visitors then turned defence into attack and scored a try of their own. They broke down the right-hand side before Dom Georgiou scored in the corner. Joshua Kelly’s conversion sailed wide of the posts.

The visitors came out firing after the break and scored in the 44^th minute. Elliot Craven bundled over from close range to reduce the deficit to 14-12. The momentum continued to be firmly with the away side, and they came agonisingly close to taking the lead but were penalised for holding on at the ruck. The game continued to be played in the middle of the park before Scarborough went in search of their third try. In the 70^th minute, playing the advantage, Ratcliffe looked for a cross field kick which found Joe Davies, but he was taken out in the air. The Old Brodleians winger was shown a yellow card. In the final seconds of the match, Brods went in search of a winner, but skipper Drew Govier won a penalty on half way to seal the points.

Scarborough are without a game next weekend before they travel to Selby for their penultimate away trip of the season.