York battle to first day victory
Huddersfield Men’s 1sts 14-22 York Men’s 1sts
York’s Rugby Union team got their BUSA league campaign off to a winning start for the first time in three years after negotiating a tricky away encounter in Huddersfield. York made the task all the harder for themselves by not capitalising on their superiority, and were made to sweat in the closing minutes before securing the win.
With the narrow pitch playing into the hands of Huddersfield’s sizeable forwards while all but negating the benefit of York’s mobile back, the away side spent the opening minutes defending. Fortunately for York, Huddersfield’s lack of ambition in their back’s play rendered the ask easier, if bruising. Despite the perfect playing conditions, the ball rarely ventured beyond 9/10 channel, and committed gang tackles ensured Huddersfield never looked like encroaching on York’s tryline.
Once York’s backs had found their range and running lines on the diminutive playing surface – shorter and narrower than a standard field at just 80m by 50m by 20m – they began to look dangerous. Their breakthrough came midway through the first half when York’s rapid recycling at the breakdown took its toll on the defence. Slick hands in the midfield meant the ball reached Nick Mason before the tiring cover, and the winger sped over in the corner for his first try of the season. But with York’s lineout misfiring and their scrum stuck in reverse, the backs’ most reliable stream of good ball came from the Huddersfield set-piece, which was suffering similar travails. One such turnover found York’s James Wilson at first receiver, and he produced a piece of individual brilliance by taking a deep pass from the base of a ponderous ruck before beating three Huddersfield defenders to score a try. York’s advantage was further stretched as Warwick Burrows coolly slotted his second conversion of the game. The centre then very nearly extended the visitors’ lead close to half time, but was judged to have been held up over the line.
Immediately after the restart Huddersfield somehow found themselves back in contention, despite having looked toothless in attack for the first 40 minutes. York number eight Ally Handy secured the kick off cleanly, but the Huddersfield hooker managed to collect the ball from a suspiciously offside position before his bullocking run took him through the tacklers and crashing over the whitewash.
York gathered themselves and responded immediately, determined not to lose a game they had been dominating. Fly-half Tom Benbow sped around the outside of the flat-footed Huddersfield defence before flipping a speculative pass inside to Wilson just five metres out. The full-back gathered it in and scrambled over in the corner for his second try.
After this setback, Huddersfield never looked like getting back into the game. With York locks Mike Callis and Jon Kume-Davy disrupting their lineout and the breakdown, they could not get any good ball, and ferocious tackling from the York pack, led by skipper Paul Goodall, quickly snuffed out any opportunities that they could create. York managed to stretch their lead still further when replacement wing Seb Hurst was handed an easy three-pointer when Huddersfield infringed inside their own 22.
York survived a late scare when Huddersfield managed to score another converted try, again in controversial fashion, but they managed to negotiate a tricky last few minutes with an ultimately comfortable eight-point lead.
Goodall was delighted with the result: “The build-up to the game wasn’t great, and we were playing a big physical side, who had beaten us heavily last season, on a very small pitch. To come away from the match with a win says a lot about us as a team.”
And with the 2nd XV’s 43-6 mauling of Sheffield Hallam, there are some promising signs for the season to come: “I’m really pleased that we’ve got the strength in depth to put out two very good sides at the moment, and that was reflected in two excellent wins today.”
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