Rugby 1sts reach quarter-finals and are finding form

York faced a strong Lincoln team who had come joint top of the equivalent league to York in the BUSA Midlands conference and didn’t underestimate the task they faced in the last 16 of the BUSA Plate. After performing weakly against a poor Strathclyde side last week, an improved performance would be required for York to be in contention.

A scrappy opening five minutes showed that Lincoln weren’t going to be any pushovers and York found themselves under pressure as York failed to get a foothold in the game. Good defence kept Lincoln out, but York continued to infringe and putting themselves under increased pressure.

Frustration started to build and in a Lincoln maul, prop Ben Inness appeared to head-butt the Lincoln 6 and was resultantly sin-binned, when a red-card was a distinct possibility.

The referee had earlier missed the Lincoln 6 punch Ben at the opening scrum, but no excuses can be made and York found themselves facing a 10 minutes of intense pressure, but it brought York out of their shell and although they faced some tough running from Lincoln, they also began to establish themselves and survived being with only 14 men without conceding. The morale boost this created put York on the front foot and they started to dominate the match.

However, it was persistence and a large slice of luck that eventually led to York taking the lead. A poor clearance by Lincoln ended up in scrum-half Tim Walker’s hands and good vision to kick into space across field and a good chase led to Peter Spanker beating the winger to kick on receiving a favourable bounce before collecting to score.

More good fortune followed after good scrum-work turned over York ball, but a knock-on in midfield was missed and Danny Stacey kicked through, showing good pace and football skills to kick over the try-line and score with Rob Naboo kicking the resultant conversion.

York then emphasised their dominance by scoring possibly their try of the season, York switched the play across both sides of the park before the ball going through probably 8 sets of hands including 6 excellent offloads, before Nick Mason sensationally offloaded allowing Ali Arkan to score in the corner and give York a 17-0 half-time lead.

The first ten minutes after half-time were always going to be crucial to ensure York closed the game out and they came out of the blocks firing. Five minutes into the second half, from broken play Danny Stacey found a hole where there was none and ghosted through before easily outpacing the full-back to score and with the conversion kicked York found themselves 24-0 up.

Lincoln came back into the game with good forward play and tactical kicking. Good defence held Lincoln out until a rampaging run by the Lincoln hooker broke the York line and from the resulting ruck Lincoln crashed over to give themselves a chance.

York reacted by tightening their game up and playing the game in the Lincoln half. The remainder of the second-half was played out like this with a few opportunities for Lincoln and York.

York took points when they came their way and kicked two penalties. The second one coming as Lincoln had begun to become frustrated and after infringing at the ruck, the Lincoln 10 petulantly threw the ball at Tim Walker, before shouting obscenities at the ref, resulting in being marched 30 metres and a yellow card. Rob Naboo kicked the conversion and York were 30-7 up. Shortly after, following another penalty a clean line-out win for York in the Lincoln 22 found its way through York hands and a slick move ended with Take Sagura to score in the corner.

Unfortunately York then let their foot off the gas in the last minute of the game with lazy defence allowing the Lincoln 12 to walk through a huge gap before beautifully chipping James Wilson to score and give Lincoln some pride, the final score 35-14. Next week sees York travel to Leeds 2’s in the quarter-finals, a team they have already lost and beaten this season and with a stake in the semi-final up for grabs, a grudge match can only be called an understatement.

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