Christmas and New Year celebrations have come and gone and, with a blink of an eye, it is straight back to normal life. Driffield 1st XV’s normal life is a trip to West Yorkshire to face fellow promotion chasers West Leeds RUFC.
West Leeds currently sit 3rd in North One East, 4 points behind us. So far this season they have Won 8, Drawn 1 and Lost 4. At home they have only dropped points in the their 14-each draw with Morpeth, beating Penrith, Percy Park, B&B, Malton and Huddersfield. Their losses have come at Bridlington, Alnwick, Dinnington and Huddersfield.
In our first ever meeting, back in September, West nicked the win in the last couple of minutes, winning 16 – 15. It was a tight game : WL went into a 10 – 0 lead, before Driffield got going heading into the last 5 minutes 15 – 10 up, but then two penalties, the later on the final whistle gave West Leeds the win.
West Leeds’ last three results : Won at Northern 24-22, Beat B&B 33-5 at home and lost at YMCA 26-15 last time out.
Driffield have been in good form lately, our last loss was at YMCA, the only loss in 8 games (inc YC). Last time out was against local rivals Bridlington. Driffield came up with a workmanlike performance winning 14 – 10. It was as tight as the score suggests, only superb defence for the last 15 keeping Brid from scoring. Most of the team had a bit of run-out in the annual Steve Knowles match last Saturday, and thankfully no injuries were reported at training on Tuesday.
This will be Driffield’s first trip to West Leeds HQ, something which has not been missed by the followers, with a large group travelling.
Driffield Last 3, Beat Percy Park 59 – 18 (a), Beat Morpeth 27 – 19 (h) & Beat Bridlington 14 – 10 (h) Last time out.
A few changes from last time out for the Driffield squad. G Mewburn is fighting to get back, but just misses out, P Dervey has work commitments. We have called Dench back off loan to Otley, James Watts and Brumfield also return.
Driffield V West Leeds RUFC, Sat 06/01/2018 KO 2.15
1- Zavatti, 2- Brumfield, 3- Blenkinsop
4- Cooper, 5- Douglas
6- Cullen, 7- Mewburn, 8- Burns
9- Robinson, 10- Furbank
12- Dench, 13- Stephenson
11- Dinsdale, 14- Piercy, 15- Watts
16- Murray, 17- Waterhouse, 18- Borman.
Worry not if you cant make the trip to support the 1st XV, there is plenty of rugby at Kelleythorpe, with the other 3 senior sides all having home fixtures.
2nd Team start the new year welcoming Old Brods,
3rds welcome Beverly
4ths welcome Hull Ionians.
All 2.15 KO.
Good Luck to all.
JK