York made their first visit to the impressive Sycamores ground of West Park Leeds [WPL], who were promoted this season into Yorkshire 1. Missing influential captain Fox due to work commitments and several other players, York fielded a much changed side yet again, with Ciaran Cunningham, Jack Bass and Greg Neill making their first team debuts and Darren Rutherford taking over captaincy duties.

An extremely nervous and error strewn start, saw York heap pressure on themselves and only a glorious cover tackle by Guimaraes, prevented the WPL scrum half Worley from scoring, following a clear 30m break. WPL continued to dominate for the first 10 minutes and earned an early penalty from stand off Crossland to lead 3-0. York slowly improved and snuffed out early attacks with good defence, Guimaraes again prominent. Following a typical Britland break from the scrum and a Bass chip and chase to touch, York gained territory for the first time in the opposition 22m. Earning a penalty from a rolling maul, Ben Johnson took a quick tap and fed Chris Peace who showed good strength to barge over from 20m to score his first, which was well converted by Jon Dawes, 3-7.

Galvanised and at last showing improved cohesion, York camped on the WPL 22m, retaining possession well but unable to make any breakthrough due to solid defence from the home forwards. Cunningham then belied his size to get over the gain line, the ball was fed to Dawes at 10 who put an excellent kick through for Peace to catch on the bounce and score near the posts. Dawes converted, 3-14. Rich MacKay came on for Britland and Norris for Blain and from the scrum MacKay made his own barrelling break to gain a free kick from which a promising attack fell short with a knock on. Play continued to half time with York dominating possession but unable to add to the score.

WPL threatened in the York 22m after the break but were turned over and Davies broke upfield only to be tackled short and a penalty conceded. From the lineout WPL attacked but were foiled by centre Sam Gill who turned the ball over and drove upfield. From a scrum on the 10m Johnson chose a good option in taking a cheeky drop goal, 3-17. Dawes was to narrowly miss with a penalty earned by increasingly confident forwards.From the ko prop Dan Coe gathered and charged upfield Habana like, until to the relief of all members of the front row union, an excellent tackle denied him a 35m try. Adam Bowers left with an injury so substitute back Sam Arkle was pressed into duty. Minutes later he trudged off with a dubious yellow card after poor tackling let WPL break deep into the York 22m. He soon had company on the naughty boy’s bench as MacKay joined him following a scrum. WPL were awarded a penalty try, 10-17.

With 2 York men in the bin, WPL applied the pressure and dominated possession but excellent defence from Peace and others, kept them scoreless. Bowers returned to the fray in place of Arkle. Under pressure at the scrum, the ball was shovelled out to Dawes who made an excellent break up to the WPL 5m, only for the support pass to go forward and deny a certain score. MacKay returned, York again full strength took control of proceedings and following a good rolling maul, the ball was sped down the line for Davies to dot down in the corner, Dawes just wide with the difficult conversion, 10-22. With 5 minutes remaining, Johnson switched to the blind side, drew his man and fed Guimaraes who capped a good performance with a try in the corner to secure the bonus point win. Dawes slotted the difficult chance through the middle of the posts,10-29.

There were some good performances with Cunningham prominent at 7 deserving mention but all the team, once they woke up from a poor start, played well and deserve credit. That said, had we been playing a top 6 side, then this match may well have been lost. WPL, despite having a large pack, are struggling at the moment due to losing 11 players from last season and a large injury list. They will improve and I wish them well in this tough league. This was another important win for York in this transitional season but a tough test awaits next week as we entertain early pace setters, Bridlington.