In front of a large crowd, York were beaten for the first time in 12 outings. League leaders Driffield, showed pace, skills and an ability to turn half chances into pressure and points. The home side started as if in awe of their opponents, taking 20 minutes to get into their normal stride. By this time Driffield had kicked a penalty at the cross bar, to bounce under, were the home team going to have luck on their side, but the answer was no.
In this period Driff were scoring at a point a minute. They scored 2 field tries and a penalty try with 2 conversions, to a try from Billy, score 5-19, 19 minutes gone.

With Jon Dawes sitting on the bench for 10 minutes, for tackling without the ball, Richie Roberts was helped over the line by his mates, a good catch and drive from a 5 metre line out. Conversion good, from Matt Dudman.
York’s driving maul was one dimension of the York game that Driff couldn’t fully control, one such maul progressing 30m at a good speed, with great control.

Driffield spent much of the game with 14 men, due to transgressions, being rewarded with the sin bin, first of these was on 30 minutes. York missed an opportunity to score, after sustained pressure on the Driff line.
Five minutes later, against the run of play Driff scored their bonus point try, from 65m, the tight head prop showing a great turn of pace, to feed his left wing partner, 12-26, with an excellent conversion from the touchline. A Jon Dawes, penalty taking the half time score to 15-26.

York tight driving was good, but need to stop Driff spreading the ball wide, and close them down.

York started the second half well with a good drive from Sam Potrykus, and a penalty from Jon Dawes.

Driff were good with ball in hand making ground easily, working the ball to the left wing on many occasions, freely doing switch and scissor moves, with the outside centre breaking the line regularly. One such switch leading to try and conversion, 18-33.
Again Driff scoring at point a minute at the start of the second half, but lose another man to the sin bin, interfering in the loose. Fifteen minutes into the half the score had moved on to 18-47.

York worked hard, Maud and Enslin making the hard yards, adding off loads to give extra dimension to the attacks, giving opportunities to attack the gaps they create. There were good phases of play, with York’s big men interpassing well but were short of pace, certainly not giving in. York then take a scrum against the head, good scrum.

How many times this season has the next sentence been written, “Billy chasing an attacker down and saving a try”, keep it up Billy.
This happened another couple of times, Mark Benson and Joe Maud, saved what appeared to be certain tries, through great individual effort.

York’s second half tries were scored from good handling displays, the first of which, start by running the ball from deep in their half, feeding it to the right, Eddie Bradshaw attacked the wing, running hard, making good ground passing inside for Pete martin to score, Dawes adding the extras.

York then made life a little too easy for Driff, allowing them to steal ball from the base of well won rucks. This lead to the last 2 converted tries, for Diff. Sandwiched between these York scoring their last try, working tight to the Driff try line, Dudman spun the ball wide left to Hepworth, who’s quick pass found Billy, for him to score his second try of the game, conversion missed. Final score 30-57.

Driffield played well, have pace, good hands making possession count, the score could have been significantly different had the York spirit been less, with less individual and team commitment, York did not give up. If they had started each half with the self belief and commitment that they finished with, again the gap would have been smaller. There are positives to be taken from this game, line outs, catch and drives, driven mauls, big men driving and off-loading, and the defensive chase downs.