Our 1st XV travel north to face Durham City RUFC, our 2nds welcome Sheffield RUFC and the Ladies travel to Hull Ionians for their 2nd league match.
Following our win against York in the opening league weekend, Driffield 1st XV travel to Durham this Saturday. The last time we met was in the 2016 / 2017 season when we both won our home fixtures : at Driffield the score was 39 – 13, whilst earlier in the season Durham won 25 – 11. Durham finished 3rd from bottom that season, meaning relegation to D&N1 for the next two seasons. They nearly returned to North One East the next season, finishing 2nd in the league, earning a home play-off against Scarborough. For some reason the two clubs could not reach an agreement about when the game should be played, which meant Durham had to hand the win to Scarborough. Last season they didn’t make the same mistake, finishing the season in top spot and returning to North One East.
Durham had a good result last weekend, beating the travelling Kendal 45 – 5 – an interesting result as many would have Kendal as pre-season pace setters.
Around the league, Bradford & Bingley started with a win, beating Percy Park 25 – 14 in Bradford. Cleckheaton just beat Scarborough 32 – 29 at Cleck. A last-minute conversion saw Malton & Norton take the points at the Gannock, beating Huddersfield YMCA 40 – 38. Morley beat West Hartlepool 29 – 5. Finally, newcomers Moortown left Pocklington with the points after a 26 – 17 win.
We also had a good start to league, beating York 22 – 18 at Kelleythorpe. The match was as tight as the score suggests, with both teams looking a little rusty at times. A very pleasing point was that we managed to win a close game – last year we tended to be on the wrong end of tight games. Full match report here: https://driffieldrufc.com/2019/09/09/saturday-7-september-driffield-22-18-york/
A couple of changes from last weeks victory :
- Ryan Girking has picked up a knock, which means John Soanes starts in the centres
- Ben Dinsdale makes a welcome return on the bench
- Sam Robson and Henry Furbank have swapped round, Robson starting with Furbank on the bench
- Oli Cooper starts in a straight swap for Harrison Dodds, who has picked up an niggle
- Sowersby gives way to Brant on the Bench.
Other than that we field the same side as last weekend. See below for full team sheet.
The 2nd team started their season with a good win away at York, winning 26 – 10. This week they have a tough match as they welcome Sheffield RUFC 2nds to Kelleythorpe. KO 3pm.
The Ladies completed the clean sweep on Sunday with a 48 – 5 win over Lincoln Ladies at Kelleythorpe. They travel to Hull Ionians Ladies on Sunday in the Women’s NC 2 North. KO is 2pm.
Full house of Mini / Junior training on Sunday at Driffield too, with all ages covered on a training day.
We still have a few tables spare for our Charity Day, 28th September. The 1st XV play Morley. We have James McKenzie, owner and chef of the Michelin star Pipe & Glass, South Dalton coming to cook at the club for the day. Please get in touch if you are interested in taking a table.
Durham City RUFC v Driffield RUFC, Sat 14/09/2019, KO3PM
1 – Felix Nellen, 2 – Guy Brumfield, 3 – Sam Robson
4 – Oliver Cooper, 5 – James Dinsdale
6 – Alex Cullen, 7 – Rob Mewburn (c), 8 – Adam Brankley
9 – Joe Robinson, 10 – Sam Furbank
12 – Gary Stephenson, 13 – John Soanes
11 – Will Davies, 14 – Harry Jackson, 15 – James Watts
16 – Dave Brant, 17 – Henry Furbank, 18 – Ben Dinsdale
Good luck to all