Hard way to lose

York 20 Pontefract 15
Pontefract travelled to York for their second away fixture of the season and picked up a bonus point, however, were unlucky not to come away with spoils. With the mood in the camp high after the defeat of Yarnbury, the Pontefract side full of confidence and with an excellent team spirit showed a competitiveness that was lacking last year.
York had the better of the opening exchanges, with Pontefract for the first ten minutes penned back in their own twenty five. Resolute defence stemmed the early pressure with back row forwards Jonny Burrows and Joe Perkins prominent in defence. York continued to nearly break the Pontefract line, but the well organised Pontefract outfit maintained their composure to come away with a fine try with only their second venture in to the York twenty five. On the twenty minute mark, quick ball saw Pontefract attack with confidence and real penetration. After three phases of play, the ball was swung to the right. Matty Williams and Andy Fradgley combined well and it was a fine long ball from Fradgely that put wingerRoss Shand away who dived in at the corner for the Moor Lane men to take a 5-0 lead. Andy Dean narrowly missed the conversion.
With ten minutes until half time remaining the game moved up a gear in terms of intensity. After a brief skirmish between the forwards, York scored a converted try and quickly followed up with a penalty goal to take a 10-5 lead at the break.
After the restart and with the slight slope to their advantage Pontefract dominated. Drives by Richard Maw, Rob Stringer and Andy Fradgeley began to put the York eight on the back foot. Frustrated by Pontefracts early second half dominance York had a player sent to the bin. However, six minutes in to the second period saw Pontefract take the lead through a well worked and well finished try. With skipper Glen Boyd ensuring Pontefract were well positioned territorially, a scrum five yards out led to Pontefract Boyd giving a sublime pass to the returning Matthew Bacon who hit a superb angle to cross unopposed under the posts. Dean converted to see Pontefract lead 12-10.
At this stage in proceedings Pontefract were dictating the game. The Pontefract forward worked tirelessly to allow half backs Matty Hargreaves and Boyd to keep nudging the Pontefract side in to the York final quarter. Pontefract nearly stretched their lead further when a cross field kick from Boyd was followed up by winger Shane Simpson whose inside ball to the supporting Craig Fawcett was just put down. Coach Ben Wade started to use his interchanges and Scott Hawkins, making his debut and John Fradgeley replacing the workhorses Burrows and Perkins.
Having being a given a penalty in their own half, a quick tap saw York break through. Full back Matthew Bacon’s tackle was judged high by the referee and Bacon was sent for a ten minute spell in the bin.
On a brief venture in to the Pontefract final third York had two penalty chances, one of which was successful this nudging York ahead at 13-12. This penalty seemed to give York some momentum. With a succession of penalties giving the home side some territory, the ball was pushed to the experienced York left winger who darted over in the corner. The conversion gave York a 20 points to 13 lead with only six minutes remaining.
The last five minutes saw Pontefract’s frustration at some inconsistent decisions from the referee spill over in to a brief skirmish. From the resulting passage of play Pontefract were awarded a penalty which centre Andy Dean converted to leave the score 20-15 which is where it ended. Second row Rob Stringer, a thorn in the York side was the Pontefract man of the match in what was a tremendous team effort. The Pontefract team are playing with confidence and can take great heart from another excellent performance in a game where there was very little to choose between the two sides over the course of eighty minutes. The Moor Lane side are at home to Bridlington on Saturday.