Another big challenge awaits YM
HUDDERSFIELD YMCA have a break before they try and put their North One East season back on track.
The Laund Hill side will be back in action on Saturday, April 7, at home when they face Dinnington.
They will be eager to find some form after a demoralising defeat at the weekend.
They travelled to tabletopping Alnwick and were hammered 75-17. ■■Old Rishworthians were in winning form in Yorkshire One as they won 29-7 at home to Keighley.
Keighley dominated the opening exchanges and went ahead with a try but Rishworthians came back strongly, completely controlling the scrums and saw out the second half with a quality performance to gain a second bonus point win over the visitors.
Apart from the dominance up front there was an excellent display from the two teenage centres, Sam Bake and, on his debut Ben Sutcliffe.
In the first quarter it was all defence for Rishworthians.
The pressure eventually told with a converted try wide on the right.
That seemed to inspire the home men and they hit straight back.
A try was denied for a forward pass. The resulting scrum was driven over and the next saw flanker Nick Faulkner put No8 Gerard Rollings over for an unconverted try.
Scrum half Ed Cockroft kicked a penalty to make it 8-7 at the break – exactly as it had been at Keighley four months ago.
Rishworthians had to defend in the opening minutes and great tackling saw the ball go loose for left wing Anthony Shoesmith to pick up and run 60 metres to score. Cockroft converted.
Faulkner put prop Harry Whitfield away on a barnstorming run. He was held up but got the ball away for fellow prop Josh Crickmay to bulldoze over – Cockroft converted.
Whitfield made another strong run before the ball came out for Sutcliffe to score a richly deserved, debut try, which Cockroft converted. ■■Concussion cases requiring more than a three-month absence have increased in number, according to a report on injuries in English rugby union.
The Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project, jointly commissioned by the Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Players’ Association, reported injury data for the 2016-17 season on Monday.
It showed concussion was the most commonly reported match injury for a sixth successive year, contributing 22 per cent to the total.
The report attributed the increase of concussions requiring more than three months of absence to “a trend to more conservative management of players who have sustained two or more concussions in a 12-month period”.