DERBY WIN MARRED BY HORROR INJURY
Charlie Hopper reports as Scarborough take the derby-day spoils
Scarborough RUFC overcame a first-half deficit and the loss of their prop Benny Blackall to a horrific injury to battle back and beat Driffield 32-16 at Silver Royd.
Hosts Scarborough were boosted by the return of many of their regular first-team players ahead of kick-off, and in the third minute fly-half Tom Ratcliffe broke clear after stepping a defender, but his off-load was knocked on by Angus Frend.
A shaky start was made worse when flanker Euan Govier was given a yellow card for a tip-tackle.
The visitors went for the corner and fly-half James Watts kicked a penalty for 3-0.
Ratcliffe then had chance to register his side’s first points of the afternoon, but his kick drifted wide of the posts, the opposition then chose to run the ball from their own line.
The ball was stolen back and Simon Smith’s side had a five-metre scrum just out from the line.
In the 14th minute the inform Jonty Holloway received the ball out wide and danced through the tackles to cross over for a converted try to make it 7-3.
In the 20th minute the visitors snatched back the lead with an unconverted try after flanker Tom Sowersby fought his way through the defence to give his side an 8-7 lead.
That lead was extended further after lock James Dinsdale managed to stretch over to score another unconverted try for 13-7.
Straight after the re-start Australian Blackall broke clear of the defence but was soon taken out and he suffered an horrific injury which resulted in an early half-time being called by the referee.
The prop was taken to hospital having been stuck on the pitch for around 45 minutes.
Both sides re-grouped for the second-half and in the 46th minute the Silver Royd outfit regained the lead thanks to their captain Drew Govier.
His brother Euan initially broke clear of the defence and the ball found its way wide and the skipper crashed over.
Ratcliffe added the extras with a difficult conversion in the corner for a 14-13 lead.
Nine minutes later Watts kicked his side back into the lead at 16-14 but the game then took a momentum shift as Scarborough managed to get themselves into a strong position in front of the posts.
The scrum pushed forward and forced scrum-half James Robinson to knock-on.
The mistake proved costly as in the 60th minute Jordan Wakeham took the penalty quickly in the corner and crashed over for an unconverted try for 19-16.
Three minutes later and they had another chance to apply more pressure after a penalty was overturned for talking back to the referee and Scarborough chose to kick to the corner.
From the resulting lineout the referee awarded a penalty and Ratcliffe stretched the lead to 22-16. Continued ill-discipline from the Kelleythorpe outfit presented the hosts with the chance to finish the game late on. The line-out was won deep in the opposition half and Ratcliffe managed to kick a superb drop goal to extend his side’s advantage to 25-16. The table-topping outfit weren’t finished just yet, a driving maul picked up pace and Stuart Smyth powered over for a converted try sparking wild celebrations from the Scarborough players and crowd and wrapping up a 32-16 to extend their lead at the top of the North One East standings.