Men’s Rugby 1sts: York 16-8 St John
In a scrappy game an abler York University side were eventually able to triumph over their Varsity rivals, but they made very hard work of it.
St. John started strongly, spending the opening fifteen minutes camped on the York 5m line. A high penalty count, that was indicative of the match as a whole, granted the visitors numerous scrums to launch their attacks from. With the line so close, St. John kept the ball tight and attempted to bulldoze through. The home side, however, defended brilliantly, with just a touch of luck. Eventually York regained possession from a lineout and unleashed a free-flowing move to score in the corner. The angle was too difficult to convert from, leaving the score at 5-0.
After the restart, St. John were immediately back on the offensive, making good ground down the left wing, but once more they showed little inclination to spread the ball and really stretch the defence. They were forced to settle for a penalty in front of the posts which was duly slotted, making the score 5-3.
Clearly dissatisfied with the scoreline, York captain Paul Goodall led some outstanding York attacks, rampaging through the centre of the pitch. Inside centre Danny Stacey also made some incisive bursts, resulting in York extending their lead with a penalty kick. With the visitors missing a long range effort just before the break, it was 8-3 at halftime.
The second half was far more open than the first. There was a lot of free-flowing rugby from both sides, but numerous penalties made for very poor ball retention. The referee dubiously sin-binning the York no. 3 for a technical offence did nothing to alleviate the rising frustration, although only a small fight broke out.
However, it seemed to break St John’s concentration, allowing York winger Takenora Sagara to score in the right hand corner following a great team move. A dropkick soon after seemed to seal the game, making it 16-3 to York, but St. John were not yet defeated, and scored an excellent try of their own after intense pressure on the York 10m line. Time was against the comeback though, and the game finished 16-8.
After the match, winning captain Paul Goodall explained his disappointment that his side had, “let them in the game by dropping to their level. The penalty count was excessively high.” That and an unreliable lineout prevented York from retaining possession and killing the game. Whenever they had a chance to run at St. John, York were quite obviously far superior to their Varsity rivals, but creating those chances had proved difficult. Giving the Man of the Match to Nick Mason for his role in setting up both York tries, Goodall aptly summed up the game in saying, “A win is a win, but we didn’t exactly make it pretty.”
