L 7 - 25

By Dave Campbell

Having held the lead until the last ten minutes of a cracking game with visitors Pocklington, Scarborough eventually succumbed to the effects of a string of yellow cards and two sending’s-off, conceding four late-tries as they slid to their second home defeat of the season.

The visitors hit the ground running and good work from their midfield trio of Ben Rees, James Thompson and Josh Britton stretched the home defence; however the Seasiders stuck to their task and ‘Pock’ struggled to make their territory and possession count.

Scarborough were reduced to 14 men in the 11^th minute when Ben Martin was penalized for a tip-tackle near the touchline in his own 22 on the clubhouse side of the paddock.  With the benefit of later seeing the action on video and in slow-motion it was obvious the young No8 had lifted the tackled player and just about reached the horizontal before placing him on his back.  To be fair referee Tom Boyle called it as he saw it in real time without the benefit of slow-mo!

Pocklington continued to press the depleted Scarborough side but continued to run into solid defence; however it was Scarborough who took the lead against the run of play in the 20^th minute when a box-kick by scrum-half Jordi Wakeham at a ruck on his own ten metre line found fullback Manning Smith scampering down the right touchline, he passed inside to centre Jimmy Perrett who touched down near the posts. Fly-half Tom Ratcliffe added the extras for a 7-0 lead.

With Martin back on the field the hard-fought battle continued with skilful end-to-end rugby with Pocklington perhaps having the upper hand. And they got their reward in the 35^th minute when having won a lineout just inside the home 22 the ball was moved swiftly infield  and fly-half Thompson powered over to the right of the posts to reduce the arrears to 5-7. Fullback Christian Pollock failed to convert.

The Seasiders continued to hold their own but were again reduced in numbers when lock forward Tom Hicks was sin-binned for deliberate off-side at a ruck in first-time injury time.

Leading 7-5 but playing with a man short Scarborough made a solid start to the second half but could have conceded an early try when Pocklington left wing Sam Pattison stepped on the gas and powered down the stand-side touchline only to be bundled into touch on the home 22.

Hicks returned to the fray in the 51^st minute but only managed to stay on the paddock for about 90 seconds when he once again fell foul of Mr Boyle for offside at a ruck and was yellow carded then shown a red (for two yellow cards).

Pock continued their attritional approach and continued to turn the screw against a tiring home side which was again reduced to 13 men when scrum-half Jordi Wakeham was sin-binned having failed to retreat quickly enough and was penalized for off-side.

As the game entered its final ten minutes with Scarborough still leading 7-5 despite their travails, Pock eventually found the space for Pattison to squeeze over in the corner to lead for the first time in the game at 10-7; Pollock missed the conversion.

With their tails up and their depleted opponents rapidly tiring, Pocklington pressed home their advantage running in three tries in the extended time added at the end of the game; Pollock missed all three conversions. And a miserable afternoon for the Seasiders was compounded when their skipper Matty Jones was red-carded at the death for back chat to the referee.

Although Pocklington undoubtedly deserved their win, Coach Simon Smith and his players will be desperately disappointed following a poor day at the office where to some extent, their concentration and discipline let them down; however I do think the sending-off of Tom Hicks was somewhat harsh.  With the ongoing injuries in the forward pack, the consequences of the dismissals of Hicks and skipper Matty Jones could be very damaging to Scarborough’s promotion prospects.

Scarborough

Tries: perrett

Conversions: ratcliffe

Pocklington

Tries: thompson, pattinson, + 3 tries

Teams

Scarborough: smith marshall perrett wilson holloway ratcliffe wakeham jones williams taylor brown hicks e.govier d.govier martin
Substitutes: sam peate, will leah and billy parker

Scarborough News "Man of the Match": luke brown

On a day when a series of cards and sending’s-off disrupted the forward pack Luke was a rock in the engine room and made his presence felt around the paddock.