York RI hosted Halifax on Saturday in their first home game of the Yorkshire 4 Premier campaign, looking to bounce back from last weekend’s defeat.
Halifax kicked off with the wind behind them, and RI showed their intent early, looking to move the ball into the wide areas and get on the front foot quickly. However a large number of handling errors prevented any real momentum from being gained inside the first 20 minutes. It took some words during a break in play to refocus the home side’s attacking game, which quickly paid dividends. For the first time in the game, RI managed to string a few phases together, with the ball being moved wide at the right time, back row Adam Osguthorpe finding enough space to go round the defence from 30 metres to score in the corner for a 5-0 lead.
Halifax responded with a period of pressure and were rewarded with a penalty, which they kicked to reduce the lead to 5-3. From this point, it was the home side that controlled the remainder of the first half. A second try followed, almost a replica of the first, with fullback Luke Fakes the beneficiary on this occasion, with another try in the same corner, this time well converted by centre Dan Lee to give RI a 12-3 lead.
There was time for further rugby in the first half and the home side immediately pressed forward again. Following good work from the forwards at the set piece, the visiting defence condensed, leading to space further out, and with the ball moved through the backs it was Lee who managed to find a gap in midfield to score under the posts, converting his own score on the half time whistle for a 19-3 lead at the break.
With the conditions favouring the home side in the second half, RI went in search of the bonus point score. There was frustration early on in the half, with errors again creeping in and a failure to use the conditions effectively allowing Halifax to apply some pressure of their own. However the defence was resilient and strong work prevented any score for the visitors. Eventually RI got a grip of the game and worked their way deep into the Halifax half. Some good defence from the visitors, combined with a couple of mistakes meant the bonus point try was a while in coming. With only 5 minutes left to play, it looked as though the score may evade the home side, but with a good couple of minutes of pressure, space did open up on the outside and good hands got the ball out to Andy Brentnall who got the crucial 4th try, again converted by Lee for a 26-3 lead, which remained until the final whistle.
An improved performance in both attack and defence was pleasing for the home side, with a visiting team once again kept from scoring a try and with the attack coming together well, this result will hopefully provide momentum for RI going into next week’s trip to Leeds Modernians. RI remain 3rd in the table, but now only 2 points off the top of the table.
