It was the most inhospitable conditions imaginable as Ponte gained a precious away victory. YM are having a poor season and on paper Ponte would have expected a win with a four try bonus point thrown in. This was not to be as the conditions proved a leveller and Ponte had to put in a fantastic effort just to get the victory.

Ponte played into driving wind and rain first half, and it was important the team got to half time with not too much damage to the scoreboard. This was made easier as Ponte took an early lead as Liam Kay, with the benefit of a free ball for a scrum penalty, put in a well-judged grubber kick into the corner, for young winger Lucas Ketteridge to pounce on for the score. Unsurprisingly the conversion was missed but it was a fine start.

It was important to keep hold of the ball into the wind and Ponte paid a heavy price for kicking the ball away in the opposition twenty-two, as the YM full back kicked long with the wind to gain position near the Ponte line. From the resulting line out the YM forwards rumbled their way over the line for an unconverted try.

From there on in it was a battle to get to half time without letting YM score again. Ponte lost rampaging centre Harry McAllister to a wrist injury, but his replacement Sam Millard ran some superb lines including one break when he put in an ill-judged kick with just the full back to beat. Unfortunately, Ponte could not make half time without conceding as YM scored a replica try to their first to make it ten to five at the interval.

It was expected to be straight forward for Ponte second half but with the conditions making handling difficult and an increasing penalty count against them, Ponte had to be patient. Ponte’s main weapon of late has been the scrum and in the first half YM had held it reasonably well. As the game went on however, the dominance increased. Firstly, a close in scrum against the head led to number eight Jack Beddis just failing to touch down due to a knock on. He made amends soon after however as the scrum dominance continued for a try converted expertly by Kay.

Everyone thought that would be that but, aided by the heavy penalty count, YM rallied. Good hands put their strong running winger away, only for full back Richard Dedicoat to shake off the effects of hyperthermia and pull off the cover tackle of the season. That bout of pressure was relieved and with the last play of the game Ponte deprived YM of a deserved bonus point with another try from Beddis. Ponte had another five metres scrum and with all the YM forwards concentrating on holding the push Beddis cleverly picked up and barged his way past a couple of shivering backs for a converted try.

Best for Ponte on the day were Niall Sandwith, Leo Harrison and Tad Nyanjowa, each having possibly their best games of the season. Credit to all the backs who stuck at it all the game despite the horrendous cold.