YARNBURY will face a familiar foe in the quarter-finals of the Papa John’s Community Cup Counties Two North Plate quarter-final this Saturday.

They will travel to Ripon, where the Leeds club lost 13-11 in Counties Two Yorkshire in January, having beaten them 50-21 at home last September.

Yarnbury finished third in 2023-24, with Ripon, one place and three points behind them, having ended Yarnbury’s run in the Papa John’s last season by 13-8 at Brownberrie Lane in a semi-final of the Counties Two North Plate.

Baildon, who were at Yarnbury two weeks ago, losing 20-15 in Counties Two Yorkshire, were their visitors again last weekend, going down 27-15 in a last-16 Papa John’s tie.

Yarnbury’s head coach Steve Lee said of Saturday’s match: “We were fairly loose early on, but when we got the ball into wide channels we looked very dangerous and all four of our tries were scored out wide, whereas when we went down the middle we came unstuck a little bit.

“Both sides were off their feet at the breakdown, which stopped continuity, but while we weren’t with it with ball in hand we defended very well, holding them up twice over our line just before half-time when they looked very threatening.

“We soaked up a lot of pressure and we said at half-time about seeing that period out when we had a man in the bin, but fortunately when we got into their 22 in the second half we scored a couple of tries.”

Lee added: “We had a week off last week when Roundhegians didn’t play us, but we have picked up a few injuries here, losing scrum half Sam Puxley to an ankle injury in the seventh minute, which disrupted us, and then Josh Bateson went off with a hamstring injury after making the first try, and we have also lost a couple of forwards.

“We should have been playing Roundhegains, we have played Baildon and we will play Ripon, who are all in our league, so in some ways it is a bit frustrating, but our attitude to the competition is good.”

As for their 2023-24 league season, Lee said: “We have had a fantastic campaign, with four or five of our colts now being a year older, and we have scored 750 points, which is a positive.

“We have played some really good attacking rugby and the boys have bought into what we have been trying to do. Also we sometimes play better on grass than artificial because it is easier to defend on grass, and when big sides get into our 22 on our artificial pitch it is harder to defend against.

“The reason why we didn’t finish higher was because we lost four times (twice at home and twice away) to the top two of Wath and North Ribblesdale, although they were all close, as their set-piece was superior to everybody else’s in the league, and that in close games was the difference in terms of penalties. The two best teams got promoted.”

Yarnbury’s points against Baildon came from tries by Jeremy Windridge-France (2), Max Kennedy and Max Lee, with Daniel Pound adding a penalty and two conversions.