York welcomed Bradford Salem to Clifton Park expecting a tough game and were not disappointed. Lee Denham made a number of changes from last week with Liam Hessay and Joe Maud dropping to the bench, Jon Dawes moving to 10 and Lewis Hannibal coming in to the back row.

York started well running through the phases, however the first penalty was not far away, fortunately - the Salem 10 pulled it just wide from 40m. Two further penalties quickly followed and Salem had a 6 point lead. 20 mins gone and Salem were the sharper team - George Davies at full back had made 2 try saving tackles, York needed to wake up. From the kick off York finally managed to control possession only to knock on. York won the scrum with a powerful drive spreading the ball wide for Rob Hodges to score in the corner. Jon Dawes missed the difficult conversion. York were now starting to control the ball and from another scrum Dawes found Sam Forbes to power through the middle and score under the posts - conversion secured 12-6 to York. Just before half time Dawes received a yellow card for a high tackle.

The second half started with James Hartley replacing an injured Daz Rutherford which pleasingly didn’t affect York’s scrum superiority. After 45mins, George Davies made a good break only to be stopped by a high tackle. York took the scrum and scored a straightforward pushover try through Shane Goulding. Davies secured the conversion. 19-6. Salem were not finished and came straight back at York and only a last ditch tackle by Harry Taylor saved a certain try. Joe Maud and Liam Hessay replaced Lewis Hannibal and Dawes. Salem were pressing the York line with some powerful drives and eventually scored a converted try to make the score 19-13 with 25mins to go. York now stepped up a gear and started to play some good attractive rugby - a scrum in the corner then lead to a try for Shane Goulding. This was converted by Dawes who was back on the wing for the injured Hodges. 26-13. York were now moving the ball with more speed, a 30m break by Hessay was stopped by a good tackle, the ball was quickly recycled and spread wide for Dawes to score in the corner, missing the difficult conversion 31-13. Salem were struggling to contain the York backs and another flowing move saw Dawes again score in the corner but miss the conversion 36-13. York finished the scoring with a break by Chris Fox, offloading to Josh Parker to score in the corner, converted by Dawes, final score 43-13.

A good game to watch with the score not doing Salem justice who played some good rugby for large parts of the game.
Next week York travel to Droitwich for their RFU Intermediate Cup semi-final and a possible final at Twickenham.