Huddersfield YMCA lost at home last week to West Leeds which appeared surprising - they presented themselves at Clifton Park as a group of big, experienced and determined players. They are fourth in the league and still have hopes of promotion.Freddie Smith joined Lewis Hannibal and Shane Goulding in the back row. Joe Maud, making his way back from injury, started on the bench to make up a mobile and balanced quartet. Chris Peace and Sam Forbes provided some experience in the centres whilst Will Scholey played alongside Dan Coe and Daz Rutherford in the front row. It was a fairly cold day with grey skies.

York retained possession from the kick off and fly-half Liam Hessay kicked an early penalty to put York ahead with Huddersfield not yet to handle the ball. When the visitors did get possession they looked slick. The forward pack were swinging around the pivot receiving the ball at pace and their big winger, Tom Van Rooyen, finished a two-on-one in space that the forwards had created. Gavin Stead missed the conversion.With both teams playing with ball-in-hand, York were making metres themselves and they ensured that Huddersfield would not have everything their own way. Shane Goulding broke two tackles and took the game in to the Huddersfield twenty-two but it was here that Daz Rutherford suffered a serious hip injury and had to be stretchered off. He was replaced by another ex-colt, Lewis Jackson. Through a dominant scrum and consecutive penalties, YMCA reversed the field position and scored. Hooker, Ben Hill, completed a powerful driving maul. The conversion was successful and it was clear that YMCA were playing at a high tempo..

Another wave of YM running rugby saw flanker Samuel Hodge carry the ball in two hands releasing outside centre Tom Clough to score. Another good conversion and the attacking visitors were not finished their scoring. Samuel Hodge confidently used his pace again to beat Luke Stockton on the outside before passing to Van Rooyen to score his second try and YM’s fourth. This wide conversion missed but it was a big lead for the West Yorkshire team.York re-grouped and gave Huddersfield some of their own medicine. Strong carries from Will Scholey and Chris Peace created forward momentum before Shane Goulding handed off three tackles to score out towards the corner. Liam Hessay was successful with the conversion to get York back into the game.Huddersfield continued to move York around when they had the ball. Their number Eight, Joshua Lumb, made metres with a big run to allow winger William Burns-Smith to score. Yet another conversion was missed of which York took full advantage. Shane Goulding grabbed the ball out of an under-pressure York scrum on half-way. Three accurate back-line passes, all in front of the receiving player at pace, enabled winger Rob Hodges to burn over the line and under the sticks.The successful conversion made it 17-29 at half-time. Five tries to YM, only two to York and forty six points scored in the first half. York were still in the game and Joe Maud came on to the field for the second half.

The free-flowing rugby continued from both sides – York and YM had to be brave to make tackles on big runners. The Huddersfield scrum was still forcing York back and Joshua Lumb pushed his way over the line for another un-converted Huddersfield score.York again showed that they could compete with the visitors. Freddie Smith carried the ball twice within three York phases before Shane Goulding distributed to the space in the back-line. Another ex-colt making the transition to the first-team, Sam Elliot, hit the ball at pace and scored a lovely try. The conversion was missed.It was an intense and physical game; Shane Goulding and Joe Maud both broke tackles and ran in the open behind the YM defence but neither could release the final pass to reduce the differential to one score. The York defence matched the physicality of the Huddersfield attack and Gavin Stead missed two long penalty kicks. The YMCA centre was able to score a try to close the game though when he went over after gathering a loose ball. His last kick hit the post and bounced out.

The final score was 22-39. York face a tough trip North to league leaders, Morpeth, next week.