Yorkshire Division Two: Old Grovians 10 Ripon 31

A CROP of injuries has meant that Old Grovians are having to downgrade their ambitions for the season.

"We wanted to finish in the top half of the middle of the table, but now we are just looking to survive," admitted head coach Dan Nulty after their fifth straight defeat.

The Apperley Bridge-based club, who thankfully began the campaign with two successive victories, had to cross off at Wath on October 8, and were worried about only being able to field 15 on Saturday.

However, as it happened they had a full complement plus three replacements, although Nulty started on the left wing and fellow veteran John Hinchliffe came on on the opposite flank for the second half.

"We are operating on a squad of 23 or 24 players and would like more, but Tom Gough came back after six months out with a broken leg, we are hoping that Toby Harris is back next week after breaking ribs, Anthony Griffin is a week or two away after a hamstring injury, as is Jack Hartley (shoulder), and Harry Garforth and Paddy Burns were absent this weekend at a wedding.

"The frustrating thing is that we know we can compete against anybody in this division when we are at strength."

That wasn't the only thing that left Nulty frustrated as they conceded a try after 25 seconds against Ripon having received the kick-off, No 8 Lewis Brook's pass being intercepted by hooker Tim Gilchrist, who scampered over for Tim Tombling to convert.

Grovians, who have shelved plans to redevelop their Elm Tree Farm ground, recovered well, Brook and prop Joe Garforth making good yards prior to centre Mark Harwood side-stepping his way over at pace for fly half Ben Brown to convert.

However, there was no long-term revival as the hosts conceded the vast majority of the penalties and too often tried risky passes, while hooker Matthew Worrall rarely found his target at the line-outs.

But the scrum functioned well, and when the home side did get their collective handling right they looked dangerous, but the remarkable thing was that, having erred so often, Grovians were still in with a chance of a losing bonus point right into injury time at the death.

"When we put three or four phases together we looked good," said Nulty, "but we gave penalties away by taking the ball illegally when they were going to kick it back to us anyway.

"But I think we deserved a losing bonus point for what we did when we had the ball."

Ripon took a lead they were never going to lose in the 12th minute when prop Ashley Plant wriggled free sufficiently to bang the ball down on the line, but they were penalised for having a blocker in front of a drive before they scored their third try in the 27th minute, centre Dom Butler carving through from deep for Tombling to convert.

Joe Garforth went off with a muscular injury to his back just before half-time, Charles Cockshott coming on, and Hinchliffe replaced scrum half Harry Dunhill during the interval.

Brown's penalty two minutes into the second half revived home spirits, and Harwood and full back Tim Jones ran well as they sought a second try, but the sin-binning of Grovians flanker Harry Hardy by referee Jim Saunders (East Yorkshire Society) for not rolling away in the 58th minute gave Ripon the opportunity they were craving.

Three minutes later, prop Adam Newcombe got on the end of a pushover try, and each team lost a player injured – Brook calf and George Bentley neck – before Ripon finally killed the home side off with a try by Butler in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Tombling converting.