Bonus and back into second
Dave Campbell reports from Hullensians as the visitors seal victory
Scarborough bounced back from defeat by Heath, running in four tries to earn a bonus point and back into second place.
HULLENSIANS 17 SCARBOROUGH 29 Scarborough bounced back from last week’s home defeat by Heath running in four tries to earn a bonus point and leapfrog Heath back into second place in Yorkshire One.
Late withdrawals from the squad saw Phil Watson come in for the injured Matty Oxtoby in the second row and Paul Taylor for Mikey Whitton at tight-head prop.
Winger Harry Domett had recovered from flu and started on the left wing for the visitors.
Coach Simon Smith’s men took the game to Hullensians on a sunny autumnal afternoon on Humberside.
The men from Silver Royd scored within five minutes of kick-off when following pressure on the home try line, the ball was moved infield and scrum-half Jordan Wakeham crashed over near the uprights and fly-half Tom Ratcliffe added the extras for a 7-0 lead.
The Seasiders kept the pressure on, their pack shunting the home eight back at a rate of knots at every early scrum and it was no surprise when skipper Matty Jones playing at prop powered over from close range in the 11th minute.
Ratcliffe failed to convert but the visitors led 12-0.
Scarborough were bossing the forward exchanges with Paul Taylor and Nino Cutino making their presence felt at scrum-time and around the paddock and scrum-half Wakeham getting a good supply of clean ball.
And as they pressed on the home 22, Hullensians winger Josh Langford deliberately knocked on and was sin-binned for his trouble and Ratcliffe extended the lead to 15-0 with the resulting penalty in the 18th minute.
Scarborough had to resist an extended period of pressure on their own line in the second quarter, but the Humbersiders couldn’t find a way past a solid defence.
The visitors broke upfield and flanker Aaron Wilson skipped clear of the cover with only full-back Guy Martinson to beat and Domett clear on the overlap on his outside.
Inexplicably, he tried to take on Martinson and was tackled with Domett left redundant and frustrated.
However, the young back row made amends on the stroke of half-time when with great tenacity he drove over with a posse of would-be tacklers hanging on.
Ratcliffe added the extras for a 22-0 Scarborough lead at the break.
The Seasiders should have pressed home their advantage after the break but their lack of concentration and over-elaboration saw several try-scoring opportunities completely butchered.
However, Hullensians
stuck manfully to their task and second row Pete Osborne crossed in the 47th minute to reduce the arrears at 22-5.
Scarborough continued to over-elaborate going forward and some simple opportunities went begging, however they eventually got their bonus point when a break down Scarborough’s left flank saw Ratcliffe release full-back Jim Perrett, who went over in the 58th minute.
Ratcliffe just pulled the touchline conversion but the visitors let 29-5.
With a glut of possession, Jones’ men continued to make heavy going of their task appearing to get into a muddle in midfield with at one stage one player selling three dummies before running into his own man.
There were many good things and the form of Cutino since his return from suspension has been a revelation with the South African prop getting around the paddock like a young thing.
And although young Jonty Holloway hasn’t been on the score-sheet lately his defensive work was outstanding in this game.
Hullensians pulled back another score in the 66th minute when left wing Josh Langford went over in the corner following his own chip through.
Martinson converted to cut the Scarborough lead to 29-12.
Then came a déjà vu moment just before full-time whenWilsonagainbrokeaway with Domett unmarked on his outside, once more the youngster held on and was tackled, ignoring his unattended teammate, who is arguably Scarborough’s deadliest finisher.
This was a proverbial game of two halves with Scarborough scoring 22 unanswered points in a powerful and dominant first half performance before going on to lose the second half 17-7.
But to get things sharply into perspective this was their eighth bonus-point win of the season, very impressive stuff indeed.
In a sterling effort by the visiting pack, Cutino and Taylor took the kudos, while behind them Jordan Wakeham put in a busy shift at scrumhalf.