L 34-12

By Dave Campbell

A very much re-shuffled Scarborough side from the one which triumphed against Beverley last week were beaten 34-12 by a rampant Moortown outfit reportedly boosted by several recent signings.

With scrum-half Jordi Wakeham missing having had a knee operation twenty-four hours earlier, Joe Lenton came in at scrum-half. In the original selection No8 Ben Martin was unavailable and was replaced by Aaron Wilson and Sam Dawson came into the back row.  Lock forward Phil Watson was a late withdrawal with a chest infection and hooker Matty Jones moved into the second row and Sam Dawson moved from the back-row to hook without a ball being kicked. And that totally re-shuffled pack only lasted eight minutes when flanker Drew Govier was injured and Mikey Whitton replaced him for the remainder of the game.

With the Seasiders missing both half-backs plus their regular back and second rows it was no surprise that they took a considerable time to settle and Moortown were 10-0 ahead with just quarter of an hour on the clock. The Leeds-based outfit took an early 3-0 lead with a penalty from fly-half Daryl Atwell and stretched it to 10-0 with an interception try from left wing Alekaii Robinson  converted by Atwell in the 14^th minute.

The home side played some attractive rugby on the front foot running hard at a Scarborough side playing into a setting sun and only dogged defence kept the visitors’ line intact. A second penalty for ‘town’ saw the west Yorkshiremen stretch their lead to 13-0 in the 36^th minute.

Moortown laid siege to the Scarborough line but over-elaboration on their own part and some brave defending from the visitors, particularly their back three with Jonty Holloway outstanding, saw Scarborough survive to the break without further score.

Trailing 0-13 the Seasiders were far from out of the game and they struck back almost immediately at the start of the second half; a trademark bustling break by Harry Domett down the left touchline saw the Scarborough winger pop a pass to Paul White up in support and he powered over to open the visitors’ account in the 43^rd minute.

Fly-half Tom Ratcliffe pulled his touchline conversion attempt across the uprights but trailing by only eight points the visitors took the game to the west-Yorkshiremen. Scarborough’s penetrative runners looked to breach a solid Moortown defensive line and Paul Taylor, Matty Jones, centre Billy Parker and particularly Nino Cutino did just that. However the well organized scrambling home defence managed to repulse Scarborough’s third quarter effort and re-exert control.

Coach Simon Smith looked to find a winning combination and moved fullback Jim Perrett to scrum-half with Holloway moving to fullback and Jack Anderson deputising on the wing.

However, Moortown looked progressively stronger and more composed and eventually their pressure told when first flanker Matthew Travers and No8 Beniri Taulealo crossed in the 61^st and 64^th minutes respectively. Atwell converted both for a 27-5 lead.

To their credit Scarborough stuck to their task and when a Scarborough player was almost decapitated by a high tackle in the Moortown twentytwo; ever-alert Perrett quickly took the resulting penalty and powered over in the 70^th minute. Ratcliffe added the extras to reduce the arrears at 27-12.

However in the gathering gloom as Moortown pressed and Scarborough ran out of numbers, Anderson delivered the coup de grace for the bonus point with a late touchdown wide on the right. Atwell converted to complete the scoring at 34-12.

Campbell’s Comment

Moortown were worthy winners and were much the better side on the day. However in fairness to Coach Simon Smith and his charges, eight changes in position and personnel from the side which has got them where they are at this stage of the season is a major stretch of his playing resources.  With an improvement in availability and the sick list I fully expect them to bounce back from this reverse.

 

Scarborough

Tries: white, perrett

Conversions: ratcliffe

Moortown

Tries: robinson, travers, taulealo, anderson

Conversions: atwell 4

Penalties: atwell 2

Teams

Scarborough: perrett holloway parker white domett ratcliffe lenton cutino dawson taylor readman jones d.govier e.govier wilson
Substitutes: whitton anderson leah

Moortown: tomlinson moorby smith gaunt robinson atwell arundale child o’leary cross halliday wilcox travers nwanzia taulealo
Substitutes: hughes farley crossley

Scarborough News "Man of the Match": nino cutino

On a day when things were hard going for his side, Nino really had the bit between his teeth, powering over the gain-line, tackling with ferocity and carrying with real purpose.