Old Rish in second after late rally seals narrow win
OLD Rishworthians returned to winning ways with a 27-25 win at Barnsley to consolidate second position in Yorkshire Two – but they left it very, very late.
A try with the last move and a coolly-taken conversion by Josh Kelly brought what at times had looked an unlikely victory.
Rishworthians trailed 25-20 with five minutes to go, but as time ran out they took play close to the home line before No.8 Jacob Bower burst through to touch down.
Kelly made no mistake with the pressure kick to seal the victory.
The game started poorly for Rishworthians as relegation-threatened Barnsley took the lead with a penalty.
Kelly responded to level, but the visitors failed to deal with the restart and a lucky bounce brought a converted try in the corner.
They came back well and a quickly taken penalty saw the ball go to left wing Anthony Shoesmith, who came in off his wing to score.
Kelly converted to level.
Barnsley regained the lead with a penalty.
Bower then burst through before offloading for supporting flanker Ethan Pollard to score. Kelly converted.
Unforced errors and penalties led to a Barnsley unconverted try from a catch and drive to end the half.
The second half saw more errors from Rishworthians until a Kelly penalty made it 20-18.
Barnsley hit back and scored a converted try after a series of phases, even though the ball was knocked forward but was unseen by the referee.
But Rishworthians’ never-give-up attitude saw them through in the end with Bower’s fine try and then Kelly’s conversion.