Burley Report

Following a weekend off, York RI returned to action by hosting league leaders Burley at New Lane, the form team in the league having demonstrated through the season an ability to put plenty of points on the scoreboard.

Playing with the wind in the first half, RI quickly established field position through set piece dominance, and were duly rewarded within the first 5 minutes, with a pushover try, number 8 Lewis Starbuck the beneficiary, conversion missed in a difficult wind for a 5-0 lead.

RI continued to press and use the wind to their advantage, but the visitors showed why they are top of the pile with some excellent defence. They started to get their attacking game going too, and despite playing into the strong wind managed to create some opportunities. A good home defence was once again able to keep the try line intact, but 2 kickable penalties were conceded and converted, to give the visitors a 6-5 lead heading into the break.

With the prospect of playing into a strong wind for the second half, against the league leaders, whilst being a point behind, a big response was needed from the home side. As has happened on previous occasions this season, this was found, with both the attacking and defensive sides of the game going up a level.

Spending the majority of the half under pressure in defence, the effort and ability across the park was outstanding, with the visitors being denied a score of any kind. Opportunities for points in attack were hard to come by, so a clinical approach was needed and from one such opportunity, a high ball was put up on the Burley fullback, and centre Jonny Evans managed to win the contest and drop over under the posts for a try, converted by Dan Lee for a 12-6 lead.

The remainder of the game was a backs to the wall effort from the RI defence, with a huge shift going in from all players, well supported by a dominant effort from the forward pack at scrum and lineout time, meaning that Burley were unable to find the score they needed before time ran out.

A massively impressive second half was the headline of the game, having to come through a very tough test in tough conditions to get the result against a strong Burley side. RI remain 3rd in the league, but now level on points with Burley and only 2 behind now leaders Bramley Phoenix. Next week sees another free weekend for RI, before a trip to Halifax on March 14th.