Saturday, 23 March 2019 : This weekend’s action

Two games at Kelleythorpe this weekend : our 1st XV welcome Huddersfield YMCA for their North One East league game, whilst the 4th XV host Hullensians (subsequently cancelled).

A warm welcome to Huddersfield YMCA as they make the trip from West Yorkshire. YMCA are having a good season once again, sitting 4th in the league with 15 wins from their 22 games played. They still have an outside chance of finishing in the top two, but need Morpeth, Scarborough and Morley to drop points. YMCA travel to Morley in a couple of weeks. Their 7 losses have mostly been away from home : at Percy Park, Cleckheaton, Bridlington, Scarborough and Morpeth, with home defeats to Morley and West Leeds.

Driffield and YMCA have faced-off on numerous occasions since we first met in 2011/12 season in Yorkshire 1. They managed to gain promotion to National 3 in 2014 and enjoyed two seasons there before dropping back down to North One.

Our head-to-head record is level at present with 5 wins each and a draw. In our first meeting this season at Huddersfield back in November, YMCA ran out comfortable winners 50 – 24. However the score doesn’t tell the whole story. Driffield started like an express train and opened up an 19 – 0 lead before YMCA hit back to turn around 19 all at half-time. YM carried this momentum in the second half to get to 50 – 19 before Driffield scored the final points to finish 50 – 24. Full match report here: https://driffieldrufc.com/2018/11/25/huddersfield-ymca-50-24-driffield-saturday-24-november-2018/

YMCA last 3 games: beat Pocklington 28 – 13 (h), beat York 22 – 39 (a) and lost at to West Leeds 20 – 30 (h)

Hopefully Driffield will be full of confidence after last week’s win at Cleckheaton. It wasn’t the most attractive game of rugby I have seen, but they sure put some effort in. To come away with an 11 – 17 win was a brilliant performance. Match report here:https://driffieldrufc.com/2019/03/11/cleckheaton-11-17-driffield-saturday-9-march-2019/

Whilst not mathematically safe yet, the win at Cleck means we need 2 points out of our remaining 4 games to be safe. Only two changes in the starting line up : Stephenson missing with an injury, Dinsdale moves to centre, with Robinson returning on the wing, Oli Cooper returns to the side, in for Warcup in the 2nd row. On the bench Ryan Murray and Rowbottom join Borman. Full team below.

Driffield last 3 results: won at Cleckheaton 11 -17 (a), lost to Scarborough 22 – 27 (h), lost at Bradford 32 – 29 (a).

Looking at the league there is still a lot to play for. At the top it has come down to 4 teams : Morpeth and Scarborough still hold the top two spots, with Morpeth 4 points clear. Morley and YMCA still in with a chance, but are 6 and 8 points off second spot. Scarborough head to Morley this weekend : a Scarborough win might just about hand them at least a play off, and a Morley win would open it back up again. Morpeth travel to Pocklington.

At the bottom, Consett’s loss at Scarborough last weekend means they will be relegated at the end of the season. Bridlington’s 1 point win at West Leeds shows they still have a bit of fight left in them. Brid jump West Leeds in the league, but only for 13th and 14th positions, separated by 1 point. Cleckheaton come next in 11th, 3 points ahead of Brid. Next is Pock on 51, Malton 52, York 55, Driff 58. Safe are Percy Park on 61 and Bradford on 62 points. Its looking like it will be a battle between West Leeds, Brid and Cleck for the remaining relegation spots. Cleck head to Consett this weekend, Brid host Malton and West Leeds travel to York. I’m sure we see some interesting results on Saturday night.

The 1st XV to play Huddersfield YMCA at Driffield will be :

(* – denotes players that have come through the Driffield Youth Section)