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Photos: Oona Venermo
York men’s 1st team claimed a scrappy victory yesterday against Hull in their BUCS league match to further cement their place at the top of the table. The match failed to deliver the intensity promised by a clash between the two rivals, with York failing to ignite for long periods of the game.
York handed Hull an early lead with a careless penalty in their own half, but were straight back in the game, stealing a Hull line out on the 5m line. The Black and Gold went crashing over the whitewash only to be held up by a desperate Hull defence. Hull dominated the resulting scrum, earning themselves a chance to clear their lines.
York found themselves struggling to make the gain line against a determined Hull defence, but a brilliant move off of the lineout saw captain Sam Lord send winger Will Sharp into space for the home sides first try. Fly-half Tom Chadwick converted for the extra points, putting the home side ahead 7-3.
The next 20 minutes saw York almost continuously on the back foot. Hull’s attacking was ferocious, finding holes in the defence across the park, and any possession York gained was wasted through silly mistakes and handling errors.
But in a rare counter-attack, Will Sharp made a break from the halfway line, again off the back of a line out, only to be held up on the try line. This time York won the resulting scrum, and the winger popped up in the centre to charge through the defence for his second, which Chadwick again converted.
At 14-3, it seemed that York might finally start to stamp some dominance on the match, but Hull replied almost straight away, earning a penalty at the scrum inside York’s 22. The visitors opted for the line out, and their lock crashed over the line. York looked to have held him up, but the try was given and converted, reducing the lead to 14-10.
Minutes later, York found themselves once again defending a 5m lineout after more unforced errors allowed Hull to get deep into their half. A driving maul saw Hull go over for their second, which their hooker converted, giving the visitors a 14-17 lead.
The Black and Gold had the final say of the half, winning a lineout ten meters from the try line. Number 8 Mike Woods tore a hole through the Hull defence before passing on to hooker Hugh Draycott, who danced past two defenders to touch down. A missed conversion saw York go into half time with a two point lead, 19-17.
The second half started much better for York. They won a scrum on the Hull 22, which was followed by a quickly taken penalty that allowed Chadwick send winger Conan Osborne into space for his first try. The conversion was again missed, leaving the score 24-17.
Unfortunately, York again struggled to piece together any attacking threats due to yet more handling errors and it was only their huge defensive effort that kept them in the lead. This was made all the more challenging following a yellow card for Osborne. The penalty and resulting lineout nearly saw Hull score, but their hooker was held up, and a huge effort in the scrum allowed York to clear the lines and get a bit more shape back to their defence. Miraculously, York didn’t concede during the ten minutes that followed.
After a period of scrappy play, York looked dangerous once again with a great run by Hugo Watson taking the Black and Gold right up to the try line. An uncharacteristic lack of focus from Chadwick ended the move as he threw a pass straight into touch. Hull responded well, spreading the York defence too thinly and crossing for a soft try.
The missed conversion kept York ahead by two, but the pressure was on. Five minutes later and Hull did the same again, this time converting for the extra points, putting them ahead 24-29 with less than ten minutes left to play.
York showed great strength of character though to work their way back up the field, and Will Sharp crossed once again beneath the posts with two minutes to go. At 29-29, all the pressure was on fly-half Chadwick as he lined up for the conversion, but if he felt it he didn’t show it as the kick sailed over to give York a 31-29 victory.
After the match, a disappointed Sam Lord said: “Out of ten, I would give today’s performance a 3. We only played to our full potential for about ten minutes, we were just fortunate to get a try every time we managed to put something together.
“The guys aren’t really counting this as a win. We have four games left to play in the space of 14 days, and if we play like that we aren’t going up. We won. We didn’t play well. Move on.”
His thoughts on their next match weren’t entirely optimistic. “Next week we have Leeds Met 2nds away. We beat them earlier in the season, and they aren’t doing well in the league, but they will be dropping some of their 1st players, so it isn’t going to be easy.”
York remain top of the Northern Division 1A with 9 wins out of 10 and 27 points, 8 points above second place Liverpool.