York RUFC 1st XV v Huddersfield YMCA

York welcomed Huddersfield YMCA to Clifton Park looking to reinforce their position at the top of North One East. Huddersfield have suffered a draconian 35 point penalty from the RFU due to financial problems with the parent company; despite this, and to their credit, they've continued to field a full team week in week out.York made several changes from last week’s win at Percy Park. In the backs, the injured Liam Hessay and rested Sam Forbes were replaced by Declan Cusack and George Davies. In the forwards, Lewis Jackson and Will Norris replaced the unavailable, Dan Coe and John Aikman. The 18 man squad contained 11 home grown players.

York kicked off and early possession was with Huddersfield probing the York line. It was however obvious that the young Huddersfield side would struggle to cope with the pace and power of the home side. On 5 mins Shane Goulding turned the ball over at the breakdown, York broke up field and were stopped 5 m short and from the resulting scrum, Goulding touched down. The conversion was missed.The first half settled into a repeat pattern of Huddersfield attacking the York 22, losing possession, and York punishing the visitors with a series of sweeping moves to score a series of tries through Elliott, Hodges, Frank, Atkin, Stockton, Maud and Robinson. Declan added 7 conversions to make the half time score 54 - 3.

With the contest over, the second half was very much a repeat performance of flowing rugby from the home side with good handling between forwards and backs. York added another 7 tries through Davies, Dent, Hodges, Goulding, Fordy and White with 4 conversions by Declan, Sam Elliot, Joe Maud and Ross White.

Huddersfield did not give up and kept their discipline to the end.

The win puts York 12 points clear at the top of the league. Next week they travel to third placed Moortown for what could be a pivotal game in the promotion race.