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
They're top of the table, with three wins out of three and an impressive points difference which reads plus 192 points. Having already dispatched their two biggest promotion rivals, Hull and Sheffield Hallam, the main obstacle to promotion can now only be complacency.
President Chris Carrington was bullish about the rest of the 2nd team’s season: “Last year we had a great season, only to fall at the final game. We cannot afford to let this happen again. We must focus on individual games as they come along, and that should finally have us out of this league.”
Huddersfield lined up for the kick-off in an unorthodox manner, and York spotted a big hole for the kick. Tim Maitland struck it perfectly, only for York to knock on what should have been an easy score. From the resulting Huddersfield scrum, York turned over what was to be the start of a dominating afternoon for their forwards. Huddersfield managed to lose every resulting scrum and almost every line-out, and with that sort of foundation it was always going to be an easy ride for the York backs. From that first scrum so it proved, the most solid of scrums and simple back play sending Sam Taylor over for the first try.
By half-time York had racketed up a lead of 71-0 and key players carrying slight injuries were taken off. Fly-half Tim Maitland and number 8 Ali Handy both came off, after Handy had helped himself to a simple hat-trick. Maitland had created more than half a dozen tries for the York backs: in particular, man of the match Tommy Byles, who scored two tries each side of half-time.
By 70 minutes York had scored 151 points without reply, and the referee decided it would be a pointless exercise for the last 10 minutes to take place.
Elsewhere the first team’s promotion push took a knock when they went down to a hard working Newcastle team 25-10. Captain Paul Goodall said: “One of the most disappointing aspects of the defeat was that at 11-10 down with 10 minutes to go, we were very much in the game. With a higher sense of belief and fitness, we could very easily have won the game.” York must be hoping they can bounce back against league leaders Leeds 2nds next week if they hold a real hope of a top three finish.
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