Hopefully all four senior sides are in action this Saturday :
- 1st XV welcome promotion-chasing Scarborough
- 2nds head to Sheffield in their league
- 3rd team travel to Scarborough 2nds
- 4th team are looking for a game after Scarborough 3rds called off.
KO 3.00
A big game for our 1st XV, as Scarborough make the short journey for this North One East league game. Scarborough currently sit 2nd in the league, 4 points behind leaders Morpeth and 6 points ahead of 3rd place Morley. They have been enjoying a great debut season in N1E, joining the league after Durham conceded their play-off match at the end of last season. They have W14, L5 , D1. Their losses have mostly come on their travels, losing at Brid 22-18, YMCA 29-26 and Morpeth 34-13. They drew at Percy Park 23 all. We inflicted their 1st home defeat back in November winning 42-26, and Pocklington became the 2nd team to win at Silver Royd last time out, winning 25 – 7. Match report here: https://www.scarboroughrugby.co.uk/matches/pocklington-6/
We haven’t met Scarborough too often in recent years. Until this season Scarborough played in Yorkshire 1 for 12 straight years. Our paths crossed in the 2013 season, following our relegation for North 2, Scarborough won at their place 21 – 20. We won at ours 80 – 0 on the final day of the season. Since then our only league encounter was this season’s match in Nov.
Driffield head into the game off the back of their 32-29 defeat at Bradford & Bingley 2 weeks ago. Although we don’t like losing, I think we would have been quietly happy with 2 points from this fixture. We travelled missing a number of experienced players, including both captain Mewburn & vice-captain Dervey. As has been the way this season, our younger lads stepped up and gave Bradford a tough game. Full Match report here: https://driffieldrufc.com/2019/02/17/bradford-bingley-32-29-driffield-saturday-16-february/
Although I have no team info at this time, I know most of the players that were unavailable 2 weeks ago are back and ready to play. We have had big numbers down at training, will all thoughts towards Saturday’s games.
Following on the comment above about our younger players stepping up when needed, it shows what a strong club we are with injuries and unavailabilities when we have used 56 players in our 1st team this season. All while turning out 3 more senior teams each week – a remarkable achievement.
Looking at the league, last weekend’s spare weekend meant that missed games were played : York won at Consett 36 – 28, whilst Morley beat West Leeds 29 – 22. The weekend before saw good away wins for York at Cleckheaton 24-20, Morley at Percy Park 34 – 30 and Pocklington at Scarborough 25 – 7. West Leeds continued their drive for survival with a 30 – 20 win at YMCA. Malton beat Consett 40 -22, Morpeth dispatched Bridlington 53 – 5 and of course we lost at Bradford 32 -29.
Which means the league is still as open as it has been all season. Morpeth must be favourites for the title : they haven’t lost at home this season, and have 3 away games : at West Leeds this weekend which could be a test as West Leeds seem to have got going again recently; Pocklington; and Consett. Scarborough still sit 2nd, although Morley are gaining on them and they still have to meet at Morley (23/03). A couple of points behind sit YMCA. Then Bradford & Bingley are in No Man’s Land, 5 points behind YMCA, and 6 ahead of York.
The relegation battle is still on and involves 8 teams. From York in 6th (55 points) to Bridlington in 13th (38 points). There is a gap of 11 points from Percy Park (10th) to Cleckheaton (11th). It looks as though 50 points will mean safety, who knows.
Our 2nd team head to Sheffield RUFC for their match in the Merit League. With the returning players in the 1st team squad, it means we should have a strong team, which will be needed to get a win at Sheffield.
The 3rds look to continue their winning form, travelling to Scarborough to face Scarborough 2nd team, again another tough match.
4th team are hopeful of picking up a fixture in the pool after Scarborough 3rds cancelled earlier in the week.
Team :
- Alessandro Zavatti
- Guy Brumfield*
- Mark Blenkinsop*
- Lyndon Warkup*
- James Dinsdale*
- James Morris*
- Rob Mewburn* ©
- Adam Brankley*
- Craig Gray
- James Watts*
- Ben Dinsdale*
- John Soanes*
- Gary Stephenson*
- Joe Robinson*
- Harry Jackson*
- Sam Robson*
- Sam Furbank*
- Alex Cullen