2011-09-03 1ST XV vs Driffield

Scarborough 7; Driffield 14

Scarborough Try  T Radcliffe Conversion T Harrison

Driffield  Try  O Borman, Conversion L Birch Penalties Birch (3)

Scarborough gave league favourites Driffield a fright for much of the first half with a committed performance full of passion and aggression in a pulsating encounter on Saturday. 

It was all the more encouraging given that seven of the team had pulled out of the encounter through work commitments and injury. This had forced coach Dave Beck into using three props in the front row with South African Nino Cutino having to play at hooker, a position he wouldn’t normally play or had trained for.  Two of the backrow were also absent with Chris Lee and Chris Purdy coming in having had very little training time because of injury.

Scarborough playing with the fresh breeze behind them took the game to Driffield from the off with good work by centre Paul White and  new No8 Phil Watson prominent. 

Driffield however took the lead in the 7th minute with a penalty by full back Lee Birch following a swift attack by Driffields tricky back line.  Following this Scarborough’s new Australian Rob James twice broke the home defence with searing breaks one of which very nearly led to a try when after slipping the ball to Cutino the Cape Town forward surged to the line only to loose the ball in the tackle in the act of scoring.

Not deterred Borough kept on pressing and were rewarded  in the 12th minute with a good try by right wing Tom Radcliffe.  Receiving the ball out wide he cut inside, kicked towards the line before regathering the ball to score near to the posts.  Fly half Tom Harrison converted to take Scarborough into a healthy lead.

Scarborough continued to take the game to Driffield for much of the remainder of the half and ought really to have extended their lead further.  Two kickable penalties were turned down and half chances wasted as they tried to turn the screw and increase their lead.  In the 30th minute however Driffield drove up field and were awarded a penalty which Birch kicked to put his team one point behind which is how the game stayed until the interval.

Driffield tore into Scarborough at the start of the second half with their lively backs coming more into their own and pinning Boro back into their own 20 metres with good accurate line kicking.  Unfortunately for Scarborough their lineout work became more and more ragged as the game progressed and became a good source of possession for  Driffield with Scarborough finding it hard to get out of their 20 battling into the breeze.

It looked increasingly more likely that Driffield would take the lead and so it proved when in the 52nd minute their backs sliced through the Borough defence for left winger John Short to almost squeeze in at the corner before passing inside to second row Ollie Borman who crashed over for their try.  The conversion was missed by Birch from wide out.

Scarborough’s response was immediate with a surging raid down the left flank which almost took them to the line, but once again the ball was spilled when close to scoring.

From thereon in it was all Driffield, driven on by good line kicking with the wind behind them they kept Scarborough penned in and around their own 20 for much of the remaining time.  Their only score though being a penalty by Birch for a Scarborough forward not rolling away in the tackle. Scarborough’s defence during this period was superb with everyone putting their bodies on the line and no one shirking tackles.  It was a huge effort with both teams shattered at the end of the match.

There were good things to take out of this match.  All the newcomers played well with Rob James being a handful for the Driffield defence, Phil Watson putting in some thundering tackles and Tom Radcliffe taking his try well.  Scarborough’s backs were lively in the first half and resolute in defence in the second with Paul White and Graeme Jeffrey to the fore.

Backs coach Craig Farrel said after the game  that he was “very pleased with the majority of what we did and as a coaching team we identified a lot of pleasing things”

Man of the match P White

Scarborough  

G Jeffrey, T Radcliffe, P White, R James, H Sleep, T Harrison, J Rollinson, J Lowde, N Cutino, P Taylor, N Ingham, M Else, C Purdey, C Lee, P Watson.