Driffield 1st XV travel across the Wolds to face local rivals Malton RUFC, 2nds host Wharfdale, 3rds host Malton whilst the 4th XV travel to Malton. Sunday see’s our Ladies host Hull Ionians ladies.
Driffield 1st team make the short trip across the Wolds to face Malton 1st team this weekend. Driffield are looking to keep our recent form going with another win which would make it 4 wins out of the last 5 games (inc Yorkshire cup). Last weeks game was a tough test for most of it, but we eventually broke Percy Parks defence and the game finished with Driffield winning with a decent margin. Match report here: https://driffieldrufc.com/2018/10/15/driffield-49-21-percy-park-saturday-13-october-2018/ .
Malton sit 2 places, 4 points above us in the league at this moment, having P6 W3 L3 so far this season. They started in strong fashion with a 56 – 5 win when Cleckheaton visited The Gannock, then lost their next two games, 36 – 32 @ YMCA & 12 -36 v Morpeth at Malton. Next followed two tight wins, 18 -19 @ West Leeds & 31 – 30 over top of the table York. Last week they lost 29 – 3 at Pocklington.
Last season we played Malton on three occasions, we won all 3, but all finished very close. 25 -22 in the league at Kelleythorpe, 22 – 18 in Yorkshire cup at Kelleythorpe & 18-10 at Malton in the return league fixture. The season before it was one a piece, We won at Kelleythorpe 17 – 14, Malton at their place 12 – 6. Out of the 7 derbies played in the league so far, 5 have finished with of winning margin of less than 4points.
In other league news, York & Bridlington share top spot on 25 points, both losing one game each, York @ Malton, Brid @ Pocklington. Morpeth sit 3rd, 1 point behind after losing at Scarborough 22 – 17 a couple of weeks ago. Scarborough sit 4th on 22 points, having lost twice, 29 – 26 @ YMCA & 22 – 18 @ Bridlington. 5th – 9th place in the league is separated by 2 points, YMCA in 5th, Morley 6th, Pock 7th, Percy Park 8th & Malton 9th. Cleck follow in 10th on 13 points, Driff 11th on 12 points. Bradford & West Leeds sit 12th & 13th with 1 win a piece so far & Consett prop the table up, still looking for their 1st win. The league is looking very open at the moment, I’m sure that will change as we move into the winter, with squad depth becoming a factor. Pre Season favourites York haven’t disappointed so far, Bridlington and Scarborough im sure will be more than happy with their early season form. Pocklington & Morley, who both came down into the league from the North Premier will be looking to start climbing the league. It looks as though it could be a long season for the boys from Consett, although they look a tough task on their own ground.
2nd XV host Wharfdale in the league. This will be a tough challenge for our 2nd team, we have yet to win against Wharfdale. Driffield will be looking to bounce back after two defeats in the league. Last week they lost 26 – 12 at Sheffield, a game which we could of won, the followed a home loss to Morley 2nds 22 -18 at Kelleythorpe.
3rd & 4th teams both face Malton, 3rds host Malton 2nds, whilst the 4th team play Malton 3rds at Malton. Early days for these teams, with this being only their 3rd fixture of the season.
On Sunday our Ladies host Hull Ionians ladies in the second round of their league campaign. Their 1st game ended in a 7 all draw against York Ladies at Kelleythorpe. hopefully this time they will get the win.
Driffield RUFC 1st XV v Malton RUFC 1st XV (a) Sat 20/10/2018
1 – Blenkinsop, 2 – Sowersby, 3 – Dervey
4 – Cooper, 5 – Cullen
6 – Mewburn G, 7 – Beachell, 8 – Brankley
9 – Gary, 10 – Furbank
12 – Stephenson, 13 – Soanes
11 – Robinson, 14 – Lawrence, 15 – Jackson
16 – Turner, 17 – Dinsdale, 18 – Zavatti.
Good Luck to everyone.