Playing back-to-back on Wednesday, both the York Women’s 1s and 2s were up against Leeds in pre-season friendlies. The 2nd team game kicked off first and saw Leeds win 25-5. But the following 1st team game saw York get their own back in a convincing manner.
The first major chance of the 1st team game actually fell to Leeds, with their blindside flanker (number 6) finding a gap on the half way and breaking into York’s 22. However, York’s defence prevented this break, from turning into anything, indeed they kept the visitors to nil for the entirety of the first half.
York scored their first points at fifteen minutes, finishing off a drive in the left corner after a short period down in the Leeds 22. Within two minutes York touched the ball down for another try, just slightly further in from the left touch line. This try was rapidly built off the restart, with two successive breaks down the wing. A third try came another five or six minutes later, taking the score to 15-0.
Perhaps the most impressive try came at the very end of the first half, after Leeds had been in control of field position for about 10 minutes. York held out against successive waves of attack, shutting any gaps in the centre, and making sure that whenever Leeds went out to the wings, they responded with even stronger tackling. For York to then go down the other side and convert this physical dominance into their own 7-point score was particularly impressive.
All-round dominance in defence continued into the second half, and it took a commendable effort for the visitors to get their first points with a converted try. Even then it required a second effort after initially being forced into knocking the ball on, over the try line. Leeds did then start to build pressure of their own, scoring a second converted try shortly after this, taking the score to 22-14.
York did squander one opportunity at the beginning of the second half, but as soon as Leeds scored their second try and brought the match back into contention, the home side doubled down on being clinical in attack. Leeds did score one more try in the concluding minutes of the match, but York ultimately outscored the visitor by 4 tries to 3 in the second half.
Scoring eight tries in total (including 2 for Jones, Serrào, and Agosti) on top of a defensively dominant forty minutes plus, York Women’s 1s saw themselves to the comfortable winning margin of 25 points. Such a performance in a pre-season friendly is surely a good sign for a full season ahead. On the other hand, while Leeds won’t be happy with the score line, they can reflect positively on finding good field position and working out how to score tries in the face of solid defending.
Other sports news
I was able to catch most of the York Men’s 1s football match against Hull over on the East Campus. This was a tight cup match, which York won 3-2 thanks to an extra-time winner from Finlay Cannon. While the first forty-five minutes were primarily played in the York half, and the second forty-five primarily in the Hull half, the scoring had alternated throughout. Each of the two York goals in normal time were followed by Hull equalisers, so the home side will have been relieved to have scored the only goal in the additional thirty minutes.
