Away day win at Cleckheaton
Scarborough RUFC ran out 29-19 winners at Cleckheaton on Saturday, picking up from where they left off before Christmas.
North One East table-toppers Scarborough RUFC picked up from where they left-off before the festive break with a 29-19 bonus-point win on the road at in-form Cleckheaton in the first game of 2019.
A break from the kick-off by stand-in skipper Sam Dawson took play deep into home territory and a grubber kick through from fly-half Tom Ratcliffe found Jonty Holloway, who crossed in the corner.
However the young winger’s effort was disallowed as he was judged to have been in front of the kicker.
Cleckheaton grabbed the lead in the seventh minute from a penalty taken by flyhalf Dale Breakwell.
However, it was short-lived as the visitors struck back almost immediately when from a Tom Hicks turnover, centre Matty Young sent full-back James Perrett in at the corner in the ninth minute for a 5-3 advantage.
On this occasion, Ratcliffe failed to convert.
It looked like Perrett had grabbed his second touchdown in the 16th minute when he dived in at the corner following slick handling by the Scarborough backs, however the referee adjudged he had failed to ground the ball and his effort was disallowed.
End-to-end stuff ensued with no quarter given or asked for and the Seasiders defended with determination in their own 22, with Kiwi lock Cade Robinson taking the eye with his tackling efforts.
However Cleckheaton were awarded a penalty and Breakwell slotted it to nudge his side 6-5 ahead in the 25th minute.
From a solid scrum on the Cleckheaton 10-metre line, the ball was moved to Perrett, who dashed down the blindside before releasing number eight Ben Martin to power over in the 37th minute.
Ratcliffe was unsuccessful with his conversion attempt but Scarborough led 10-6.
The Seasiders then managed to have Euan Govier and Aaron Wilson sin-binned for offences seen only by the referee.
Leading 10-6 and down to 13 men, the Seasiders gave as good as they got at the start of the second half and stretched their lead in the 51st minute when replacement centre Billy Parker released Perrett, who left the Cleckheaton defence for dead and scored between the uprights.
Ratcliffe converted for a 176 lead to the North One East table-toppers.
The biggest cheer of the afternoon came on the hour when 51-year-old prop Tom Fish, a club stalwart, came on as a front-row replacement.
Scarborough had some defending to do on their line and another huge tackle from Robinson turned the ball over and Ratcliffe cleared his lines.
The West Yorkshiremen turned the screw on the Scarborough five-metre line, but knocked-on over the try-line and quick-thinking scrum-half Jordan Wakeham snapped up the loose ball and launched a howitzer-like clearance from behind his own line and cleared the high-line of defenders as Scarborough streamed out of defence.
Perrett gathered on halfway and fed winger Joe Marshall, who in turn released Wakeham to race away and score in the 69th minute to stretch the visitors’ lead to 22-6.
Cleckheaton replied with a third Breakwell penalty to reduce the arrears at 22-9 before Scarborough lock Hicks was yellow-carded, much to the bemusement of both sides.
The home side scored their first try of the game in the 77th minute to cut the deficit to eight points at 22-14.
True to the see-saw nature of the game, Scarborough piled on the pressure in the home 22 and when Cleckheaton centre Mike Swetman was caught in possession and had the ball ripped from him by a couple of Scarborough forwards, flanker Euan Govier bustled through to score between the posts in the 80th minute.
Ratcliffe added the extras for a 29-14 lead.
The game wasn’t quite over, as from the re-start Scarborough were slow to react to the West Yorkshiremen’s grubber kick through the middle which was picked up by Swetman and taken into the visitors’ 22.
Three phases later on, hosts Cleckheaton scored wide on the left flank to reduce their arrears to 10 points, not quite enough for a losing bonus point.
Scarborough won this hard-fought game with a combination of solid defence and razor-sharp counter-attacking.
Defensively, their young back row of Drew and Euan Govier, plus number eight Ben Martin, suffocated much of Cleckheaton’s attacking intent.
Dynamic second rows Hicks and Robinson’s tackling was fearsome but fair.
Their back division was alert and inventive and five tries in such a close game away from home speaks volumes of the attacking intent of Simon Smith’s charges.