Nick Wright previews this weekend's clash between York City Knights and Hull FC
Alex Reid looks at whether the once ever-present appearance of English clubs in the later stages of the Champions League is set to become a thing of the past
Craig Dobson looks at QPR's decision to sack Neil Warnock and replace him with Mark Hughes
James Tompkinson reviews an excellent pre-season victory for the York City Knights against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos
A strong side travelled to Glasgow, only missing Nick Brown and Jack Wakeling – who special guest starred as the days water boy. A gusty wind entailed a tactical opening couple of minutes with York playing for territory and keeping Strathclyde pinned into their own half. All the opening play was York, but errors and poor decision making meant that chances weren’t being taken.
Eventually and predictably, York finally stamped their authority on the game. A typical York attack resulted in broken field play and the ball found itself in the hands Peter Spanker who drew the winger before handing it to Captain Paul Goodall. A suprising burst of speed left him one on one with the full back and a half tackle enabled Goodall to stretch for the line to score. Rob Grant then kicked a tricky conversion to put York 7-0 up.
York continued to pressure for the second half, but were unable to convert these chances as a strong Strathclyde defence was able to resist York’s free-flowing game. The forwards were being successful in the rolling maul and significant yardage was being made. However, when one line-out was taken off the top, the scrum-half flew through to pluck an impressive interception out of the air and had a free run to the line, the conversion was missed and York went into half-time 7-5 up.
The second half was a similar story though Strathclyde were able to play for territory with the wind at their backs. York continued to dominate upfront while the backs struggled to get through the resolute defence. However, Strathclyde had begun to infringe and two kicked penalties put York 13-5 and more importantly two scores ahead.
Following this Strathclyde came back as York were to expect and only very strong try-line defence and excellent corner-flagging by James Wilson and Nick Mason prevented Strathclyde getting the try that would have brought them back into the game. York were making hard work out of closing the game out as they continuously infringed at the breakdown in both attack and defence, but held strong to set-up a match against Lincoln 1sts at home next Wednesday.
Elsewhere the second team also won defeating Liverpool Hope Men’s first team 18-7 with Mike Thorne (2) and Sam Dudley crossing the whitewash.
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