Strong opponents for Skipton

However rejuvenated by their Yorkshire Silver Trophy Semi-Final success last week Skipton surprised their opponents with a powerful display which belied their own lowly position in the division and the confident Rodillians soon began to realise the magnitude of their task.

And the two-try margin of their victory was due in the main to their lively, opportunist scrum-half, some disruptive and highly successful scrummaging work by their loose-head prop and a modicum of luck.

The Reds' line-up saw three changes from last week with Ian Sneddon having his first senior game on the wing, Binns being preferred to Davison in the back row and Coe coming in at outside centre for the injured Coulter.

Straight from the kick-off Skipton tore into Rodillians, with Nicholson and King driving the pack deep into opposition territory. The Red eight pushed the visitors off the ball at the first scrum and Strickland won excellent early lineout ball.

Oldfield neatly chipped ahead for winger Beech to race into the '22' and Rodillians were caught offside in the resulting ruck. However Oldfield's attempt to open the Skipton account from the resultant penalty narrowly missed.

The Reds continued to exert tremendous pressure in these early stages when they were well on top. Fullback Heims entered the line in the stand-off position at tremendous pace to cross the gain line, Binns, Birks, Nicholson and King were all in support and delightful inter-passing between the forwards pushed Skipton once again into the visitors' '22'. But fortunately for Rodillians their backs maintained their composure when a try seemed certain and Skipton were unable to convert their pressure and superiority into points.

However their dominance up front continued and when King, who was turning up everywhere, was high tackled Howson neatly chipped to the corner for Beech, but in spite of Porter and Binns being in close support the cruel bounce of the ball thwarted clean retrieval and Rodillians were able to clear the danger.

Having withstood this early onslaught the visitors showed why they are a team chasing promotion. In their only excursion into the home '22' they capitalised on a fortunate charge-down of Oldfield's attempted clearance kick to touch from the base of the scrum, moving the ball to their outside half, who fed his inside partner at the tackle and the scrum-half finished the move with clinical precision with a try near the posts. The conversion meant that Skipton were trailing by seven points completely against the run of play.

Not to be deterred the Reds again mounted several attacks and following a penalty, awarded for a late tackle on Sneddon, the forwards drove deep into the visitors' '22'. Oldfield's quick release of the ball to his backs caught the Rodillians' backs offside and Howson made no mistake with the penalty.

Within minutes he repeated his success for another offside infringement after his forwards had latched on to a great break by Porter and Birks, Binns, Phillip and Winthrop having then driven the ball on relentlessly.

Next it was Skipton's turn to be caught offside and the Rodillians' fullback put his team deep into home territory. Skipton were penalised for going over in their attempts to win the ball from the lineout ruck and were punished for it by an excellent long-range penalty kick by the visitors' fullback.

By now Rodillians were beginning to realise they had to counter the scrummaging superiority of Skipton and some great work by their loosehead prop began to pay dividends as the Skipton scrum began to wheel excessively to the left, making the mounting of back row moves very difficult, Oldfield's job of feeding his outside half quick, clean ball virtually impossible and helping Rodillians achieve an increase in ball around the base of the Skipton scrum.

In spite of fine tackles by Sneddon, King and Binns the Rodillians' scrum-half was on hand to latch on to his flanker's pass to score under the posts after the Reds had been subjected to a series of attacks, and the simple conversion gave them a flattering half-time lead of 17-6.

Skipton coach Rod Rush substituted fullback Heims, who had given a fine first half display, with Smithson and he was soon on the attack, carrying play deep into the opponents' half and neatly linking with Sneddon.

And Skipton's pressure was rewarded when Strickland rose to win a great lineout ball, the backs sped it down the line and Smithson entering at blistering pace scored. Oldfield narrowly missed the conversion.

Straight from the kick-off the Reds were quickly on the attack again.

Wood peeled open, and Porter, Smithson and Sneddon all had a hand in threatening moves taking them forward.

Rodillians conceded a penalty in their attempts to regain possession and Oldfield kicked Skipton to within one try of victory.

Although Rodillians had one further failed attempt at a penalty kick Skipton were still posing problems for them and threatened to secure the treasured league points.

However Rodillians soon put the result beyond doubt. Following a simple knock-on by the Reds their dangerous scrum-half chipped ahead the resulting scrum ball.

The bounce fell cruelly for Smithson who seemed to have it covered and the ball popped up nicely for the chasing scrum-half to gather and dart in to score a try under the posts which was converted.

Although Skipton attacked with determination in the few remaining minutes no further score resulted and Rodillians went home relieved it was all over with the league points in the bag.

But there is no doubt that they will never have to toil as hard in their remaining games to achieve them.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.