1st XV
W 28-5
League
01-10-2022
Old Crossleyans
By Charlie Hopper
Scarborough made it back-to-back wins for the first time this season after a dominant first-half display helped them to a 28-5 win on Ladies Day at Silver Royd.
Backed by a large crowd, it was Matty Jones’ side who took control of the game in the early exchanges. There was only two minutes on the clock before the returning Aaron Wilson bagged his first try of the match. Having broken through the line of defence, Will Rennard offloaded to Wilson and the second row scored to the right of the posts. Tom Ratcliffe added the extras to give his side the perfect start. In the tenth minute, the home side added their second converted try of the afternoon. Winger James Long collecting the loose ball out on the wing before offloading to skipper Drew Govier, who scored close to the posts. The visitors, who are yet to register a win this campaign, were then reduced to 14 men in the 18th minute, with scrum-half Joe Stott receiving the game’s first yellow card. Scarborough used the man advantage and crossed over for their third try of the match courtesy of Wilson. He collected the ball and managed to power his way through the tackles to score. In blustery conditions, Ratcliffe made light work of the conversion to give his side a 21-0 lead. The bonus point was secured just after the half hour mark with Long joining in on the action. He took the ball in the middle of the park, before putting in a high kick which caused the Old Crossleyans defence problems. The ball bounced between two defenders before Long collected and paced clear to score for 28-0.
The second half started in completely different fashion for Jones’ men, who struggled to put any meaningful moves together during the early stages. They then found themselves reduced to 13 men with both Govier and Spink receiving yellow cards for infringements at the ruck. It had been 100 minutes since Scarborough had last conceded a point in the league, when Old Crossleyans crossed over for their only try of the match. After persistent pressure, the ball was worked wide, and winger James Johnson scored. The difficult conversion struck the outside of the post to leave it 28-5. The remaining 20 minutes of the match saw Scarborough try to put more points on the board but errors in the middle of the park prevented that, meaning the Silver Royd outfit came away with a 28-5 victory.
Scarborough are without a game next weekend, but return to action on the 15th October with a trip to Pocklington.