Pocklington 32

YMCA 16

(Yorkshire Division II)

POCKLINGTON have got one hand on the Yorkshire II Championship after beating YM in a table-topping clash at Percy Road.

Although the margin probably flattered the home side, they were the dominant team throughout and deserved their win, which leaves the Laund Hill side now trailing them by 11 points, although YM do have a game in hand.

The visitors were on the back foot from the off when Pocklington full-back Bennett slotted over a penalty, but James Swift levelled for YM with a fine effort from 40m and then gave them the lead with a second three-pointer after scrum half Nick Clarke had been obstructed after taking a quick tap to himself.

Midway through the half, however, Pocklington struck with a pushover try from No8 Davies after several drives had been repelled, before the normally solid YM pack were shunted over their own line for an unconverted try, Bennett’s kick bouncing off an upright.

With Clarke prompting the YM pack the visitors began to make inroads into the home defence and the outstanding Mark Whitehead was ably assisted by Lawrence Sanderson, Neil Walker and Darren Neilly in punching holes in the home defence, but very good scrambling prevented YM from releasing their backs.

The visitors did have a chance to reply when a sweeping move down the right created a two-man overlap, but the final pass was delayed and then intercepted, and it needed a diving ankle tap tackle from Swift to deny the East Yorkshire side a second try.

Leading 8-6 at the break, Pocklington were quick to extend it from the restart when, from a line-out, flanker Durkin was on the end of a drive to touch down, Bennett added the goal.

Playing down the slope the home team stepped up a gear and only good defence kept them at bay, but on 55 minutes the pressure finally told when winger Hardy-Rollins went in under the posts. Bennett again converted and added a further penalty to take Pocklington out to a comfortable 25-6 lead.

Whether ‘Pock’ took their foot off the gas or not, YM began to take the game to them and after a succession of forward drives, left winger Stuart Morton scored wide out which seemed to really spark them into life.

With 10 minutes remaining, good work down the right from Adam Ryder and Chris Beever took play inside Pocklington’s 22, and when the supporting forwards drove to within five metres of the line, Whitehead broke blind and forced his way over the line.

Swift missed both conversions, but suddenly YM were back in the game at 25-16 and they began to run everything from within their own half. Unfortunately a knock-on inside their own 22 led to a scrum, and Davies broke away to send winger Nixon in at the corner and Bennett added the conversion to close out the game.

YMCA: Shaw, Morton, Ryder, Williams, Beever; Swift, Clarke; Sanderson, Dyke (Stu), Dyke (Ste), Housley, Neilly, Leonne-Mazza, Whitehead, Walker. Subs: Hodge, Lockwood, Smith (not used).