In front of one of the largest crowds of the season and after a hugely successful Sponsor’s Lunch, Pontefract hosted top-of-the-table league champions Scarborough on Saturday afternoon at Moor Lane. Pontefract were quietly optimistic that they could pull off a result having a relatively settled team and buoyed by a recent vein of successful form, winning their last three fixtures in style – Ethan Grant coming in for Linden (skiing) and Bailey Matthews coming back to replace the in-form but unfortunately injured Tad (finger displacement).

In squally conditions at kick-off, Pontefract started well, having the majority of possession and snuffing out all of Scarborough’s offensive moves. On fifteen minutes, forward drives by Steve-O and a couple from Bailey Matthews moved Pontefract deep into in the red zone, causing Scarborough to infringe five metres out. Instead of taking the penalty for a certain three points, Brodie courageously elected to have a scrum. The decision paid off as the powerful Pontefract pack nudged forwards allowing Jayden Field at no.8 to pick up and power over from, what?, two metres. Liam Kay converted, 7-0.

The worst time to concede
Pontefract continued to thwart Scarborough’s much-praised back division, with Sam Gilbert, Will Cooke and Lucas tackling with aggression in the centres and wing respectively. In attack, Tom Papworth, Sam and Lucas made scything well-worked breaks but were unfortunate in being unable to get the final delivery right for Pontefract to score. Then, with Pontefract conceding a couple of needless penalties, which Scarborough elected to run, they eventually pieced the Pontefract defence out wide to score in the corner. The conversion was missed before the referee blew for a half-time score of 7-5, the worst time to concede.

Early in the second half, Pontefract were preparing to launch a further attack when the ball was plundered, allowing Scarborough to boot speculatively down-field. Pontefract were accused of holding-on and, from a quick tap and a long pass out to the opposite wing, Pontefract conceded in the corner, 7-10. Fortunately, Pontefract responded immediately from the restart with a Liam penalty to bring the scores level at 10 each.

Into final quarter, with victory in sight
Ten minutes later, from a lineout on halfway, Liam popped the ball inside for Josh Milthorpe coming off his wing to make 25 meters through the middle in traffic. Prior to the resulting scrum, Liam can be seen directing a rehearsed move and, with two decoy runners, delivered a shrewd pass to Sam Gilbert who unselfishly shipped it on to Tom Papworth to score close to the posts unopposed. With Liam converting the score was 17-10 going into the final quarter, and the crowd dared believe a victory was in sight.

Unfortunately, Scarborough showed why they are champions by scoring two late tries: the first on 65 minutes following scrum possession and a long miss-pass from centre to wing on the left to bring the score up to 17-15; the second on 75 minutes broke Pontefract hearts which was converted. At 17-22 a win was still in sight but, although having all of the possession in the last five minutes Pontefract, could not break through.

In summary, it was so near and yet so far. A wonderfully close game played with style and determination and extremely enjoyable for the spectators to watch. To quote a Scarborough member on the rugby forum: ‘A result either way wouldn’t have been a surprise…Big crowd and good set-up. Zero chance Ponte will go down, I’d expect them to be pushing next season’. Thank you, well said. Earning a valuable losing bonus point means that it’s all to play for against our final league opponents away at Wetherby on the 12th April. We will leave it to the mathematicians to work out where it puts us in the relegation play-off zone!