Keighley U-16s........... 0 Yarnbury U-16s.........36

This was Yarnbury Under-16's first game since December 10 due to District commitments and the Christmas holidays. Fortunately the Keighley pitch had escaped the heavy overnight frost and was decidedly marshy in places once the mist cleared. Still missing the injured Chris Padden and Gavin Calvert, Yarnbury new recruit Jamie Hood into the second row played Ben Mortimer at centre.

The visitors won the toss and kicked off, immediately winning good ruck ball as the forwards took the lead. Moving the ball from side to side it soon appeared the home team had limited vision as they relied on the kick and chase to gain ground. Daniels and Greaves returned with interest and the pressure increased until Keighley conceded a penalty under the posts after ten minutes, Daniels converting.

Five minutes later excellent support play from backs and forwards saw Davies in a hole through the middle. He found Maycock in support and the stand-off crossed unopposed. Daniels added the extras. Yarnbury then took the ball out to Corcoran on the left and he retained possession as Davies and Fox cleared out, leaving birthday boy Sam Buckle with an easy run in to bring a half-time score of 15-0 to Yarnbury.

Hare and Lydon were replaced by Pinn and Jones respectively, but this made little difference to the pattern of the game as the visiting forwards rucked superbly in the face of increasing intimidation. Malone was everywhere in the loose as he provided the link with Lee at scrum-half and Whitfield seemed back to his old self as he chased and supported all over the field.

An early second-half scrum brought just reward for Fox after he followed up great harassing work by Lee and Buckle to dive over, Daniels made it 22-0 with the conversion. Yarnbury continued to press and both Daniels and Greaves went close before a short penalty brought a fitting result for tight-head Bailey as he was driven over. The faultless Daniels added another conversion.

From this point Keighley came back into the game but they could not breach a superbly marshalled Yarnbury defence, ably led by Jones who tackled above his weight in the close quarter exchanges. More pressure on the home line brought its own reward as Maycock charged down a clearance kick for the second time in the match to pounce and score near to the posts. Again Daniels was successful with the conversion to leave a final score of 36-0 to Yarnbury.

Considering the amount of time off match rugby, Yarnbury showed they now believed in their own ability and won the game with a tremendous display of skill and commitment. Eight members of the side are in the final round of Yorkshire trial games.