Sweet 16! The York invincibles secure another famous victory

York RUFC made it 16 wins from 16 with a victory over second placed Scarborough on Saturday.

As expected, the game was close, but the green and whites came out on top and have added yet another victory to their perfect run of results in the Yorkshire Division One.

A close affair

The weather was miserable on the Yorkshire coast, but the strong breeze didn’t stop rugby revellers from turning out in their numbers at Silver Royd.

Scarborough were always going to be up for this one and just three minutes after York kicked off into the whistling wind, the seasiders were on the scoresheet.

York committed several infringements on the ground, which eventually led to a Scarborough penalty and Tom Harrison converted to give his side a 3-0 lead.

There followed a messy period of play, with Scarborough pressing territorially but meeting stern resistance from York. However, a further penalty saw Joe Maud sinbinned for York and Harrison again converted for 6-0

With one man down, York actually began to exert their forward strength, with the territorial balance starting to switch significantly.

This pressure finally told on 20 minutes, when the home side were penalised in front of their posts and Jon Dawes converted to get York back in the game at 6-3.

However, York were again penalised for an offside offence and a disappointing half finished with another conversion for Harrison, to give Scarborough a 9-3 half-time lead.

All guns blazing

After a disappointing first period, you could be sure that head coach Lee Denham would have had serious words with his squad at the break.

And whatever was said worked wonders, as York came out with all guns blazing!

After only five minutes, top try scorer Toby Atkin led a charge towards the home try line. From the resulting scrum, Atkin darted over the line for York’s first try of the day and Jon Dawes added the extras with a conversion, to turn the game on its head.

At 9-10 to York, the visitors started to assert their dominance and with the back row driving forward powerfully, the pressure on the home defence was increasing by the minute.

The hosts were forced into a number of infringements and were lucky to keep 15 men on the field. However, their luck fizzled out when Shane Goulding powered over for a try under the posts.

Dawes converted again to bridge a gap between the visitors and Scarborough, with the score at 9-17

The York pack, with Steve Johnson to the fore, had the territorial advantage for most of the half. However, the referee was very sharp on scrummage defaults and this tended to interrupt York’s progress towards the end of the game.

Scarborough suddenly sprang to life and after some good running by their backs, they scored a well-deserved try through Ben Martin. Luckily for York, the conversion was missed, but it set up a nerve racking final few minutes with the scores steadily poised at 14-17.

The green and whites kept their composure, and saw the game out in Scarborough territory to keep their 100% record at Silver Royd.

Table toppers

So, its 16 wins out of 16 in the league, and the invincibles go 15 points clear at the top of the Yorkshire Division One.

York look certain for promotion, and will look to continue this incredible run of form, when they return home to face fifth placed Middlesbrough at Clifton Park next Saturday.