Derby Day Round 3 for our 1st XV, welcoming Malton & Norton 1st XV. Our 2nd XV travel to Ilkley, the 3rds and 4th XVs both travel to Malton: 3rds facing Malton 2nds, and 4ths v Malton 3rd. The Ladies host York RI on Sunday afternoon.
Another week, another derby for our 1st XV. This time we welcome Malton & Norton RUFC to Kelleythorpe for our North One East fixture. Driffield will be looking to get back to winning ways after last week’s loss at Pocklington. Both Pocklington and Driffield supporters agree it was a game that Driffield should have won, but that’s rugby – full match report here: https://driffieldrufc.com/2019/10/07/pocklington-27-25-driffield-saturday-5-october-2019/
We have a few changes In the squad : Cullen is unavailable so Sowersby starts in his place. Robinson is serving a 1 match ban following his 2 yellow cards last weekend, so James Watts moves to 9. Newly- arrived Southern Districts’ Ryan Longville makes his first start at 15. Ben Dinsdale and Kelly swap position, with Dinsdale into the centres and Kelly onto the wing. Ben Johnson also makes his debut in the centres, moving Ryan Girking to the bench.
Last season Driffield did the double over Malton : 15 – 22 at Malton and 38 – 0 at Kelleythorpe. We are on a 6-game winning streak against M&N : their last win was the 12 – 6 win at the Gannock back in 2016.
Malton have had a steady start to their league campaign with 3 wins at home : 40 – 38 against YMCA ; 34 – 24 v West Hartlepool and 23 – 21 v Durham City. They have lost both their away games : Moortown 52 – 24 and York 35 – 17. They currently sit 7th in the league with 15 points.
Malton had a good win last week against Durham City : the last kick of the game won it, after they had been reduced to 14 for the last quarter – match report here: https://maltonandnortonrufc.rfu.club/match/781927/malton-norton-23-durham-city-21/
Some interesting results from the league last weekend. Our loss at Pocklington will have come as a shock to many folk. However, we know what local derbies are like, and league form sometimes goes out the window. Bradford & Bingley lost at home to York 21 – 39 – I presume most would have had that down as a home win. Cleckheaton put 59 points on West Hartlepool, winning 59 – 15. Malton had a scare but ended up sneaking a 23 – 21 win over travelling Durham. Morley beat traveling Kendal 12 – 8 – I don’t know if that means Morley have fallen off the pace or Kendal are getting stronger – maybe a mixture of both ? YMCA lost at Percy Park 32 – 22. : Percy Park looks a tough to place to visit again this season. Scarborough beat Moortown 22 – 14.
All this means we currently have 4 teams with the one loss this season. Scarborough sit top of the league with 21 points. We are 2nd on 20 points with Bees and Morley sitting 3rd and 4th on 18 points. At the bottom YMCA are still looking for their 1st win, West Hartlepool 2nd bottom with 5 points, Kendal 3rd bottom and Pocklington 4th. Looks like its going to be tight league again.
2nd team have another tough game, traveling to Ilkley RUFC to face their 2nd team. Driffield 2s are having a great start to the season, having won 4 of their 5 games so far. Last week they had a brilliant win over Harrogate 2nds 23 – 21.
3rds and 4ths split up for the 1st time this season : both make the trip across the Wolds to Malton to face their 2nd and 3rd teams. Again, they have had a strong start to the season. Last weekend the 4ths beat Pock 2nds 36 – 18.
Our Ladies continue their league campaign when they welcome York RI Ladies to Kelleythorpe on Sunday Afternoon. They had a good win last time out when travelling to Boston RUFC.
We have had a couple of last-minute cancellations for pre-game meals this week, so we have 2 tables available for this Saturday – if anybody is interested please contact the club.
Driffield RUFC 1st XV v Malton & Norton RUFC 1ST XV, Sat 12/10/2019 KO 3pm.
1 S Robson, 2 G Brumfield, 3 F Nellen
4 O Cooper, 5 J Dinsdale
6 J Sowersby, 7 K Turner, 8 A Brankley
9 J Watts, 10 S Furbank
12 B Johnson, 13 B Dinsdale
11 B Blacker, 14 R Kelly, 15 R Longville
16 O Borman, 17 R Girking, 18 H Furbank
Ref : P Wheeler (YRFU)
Good Luck to all those in Blue, Black & White.