West Leeds 16 YMCA 38
Yorkshire II
YMCA maintained their four-point lead over Barnsley and stayed on course for promotion to the top flight of the Yorkshire Leagues following a convincing win over West Leeds.
On a day made for fast open rugby, neither side disappointed with a willingness to run the ball in an entertaining match.
Yet again the star on the scoreboard was YM’s Adam Ryder who bagged another hat trick of tries and at times looked pretty unstoppable.
Within two minutes of the start the visitors looked to have scored when a neat pass from James Bell to Mark Whitehead took the back row forward over the line, but the two Leeds tacklers did just enough to prevent him grounding the ball.
It was Leeds to opened the scoring when Danny Monk knocked over a penalty, but YM quickly hit back when stand-off Jon Smith broke clear, and after an assist from Alex Shaw, Ryder received the ball with space and he beat two men on the outside to score the first try.
Within minutes he was on the ball again, but with Emsley outside him, on this occasion Ryder took the wrong option and was tackled in possession. However, from the ensuing ruck, Neil Pollock picked up the ball and drove over the line for the second try, which this time Smith converted.
They extended the lead on 30 minutes, when Simon Wilson got his backs going again after the forwards won good ball, and Chris Beever, Smith and Ryder all had a hand in the move which ended with full-back Anthony Senior coming into the line and move YM further ahead with a third try.
As the half ended Leeds put in a strong spell on attack and were rewarded when YM ‘old boy’ Steve Anderson, now playing at hooker, put in centre Billy Leal. Monk missed the conversion but did add a penalty to leave the half-time score 17-11 in the visitors’ favour.
From the re-start, YM continued to look good value and put together some super patches of rugby, while Leeds also put in some strong efforts of their own.
Twelve minutes into the second period Ryder broke the deadlock when, from 40m out, he drove full on at the defence, and just when it seemed he had been stopped, his pumping legs forced him clear and into open space where he sprinted for the line to score a brilliant individual effort.
The next score came courtesy of the quick-thinking Whitehead, who took a quick tap penalty and having made the initial break passed on to the hard-working Beever who had pace to burn as he raced to the line, Smith adding both conversions to almost ensure victory.
However, the visitors then took their foot off the gas and allowed right winger Danny Booth to score a consolation try for West Leeds. With the game nearing the final whistle, Sam Hodge was next to show his pace as he broke away from the back of a ruck, jinked inside the cover tackler and nipped over the line, Smith adding yet another conversion.
YMCA: Senior (Lockwood), Beever, Ryder, Shaw, Emsley, Smith, Wilson; Sanderson, Hill, Dyke (Ste), Neilly, Bell (Hodge), Walker, Whitehead, Pollock (Housley).