It’s a full house at Kelleythorpe this Saturday, with all 4 men’s teams playing at home. The 1st XV welcome Percy Park RUFC in North One East, the 2nd XV welcomes Sheffield Tigers in Yorkshire Merit Premiership, and the 3rd and 4th XVs welcome Goole RUFC 2nd and 3rd XVs for their Merit games.
Percy Park make the trip south from Newcastle having had a solid start to the season, sitting 7th in the league with 27 points. They have won 5 and lost 4 games. As in previous seasons, their form has been 100% wins at home, and 100% losses on their travels – or, at least, that was true until 2 weeks ago when they turned York over at Clifton Park 35-15. Their wins have come against Cleckheaton, YMCA, West Hartlepool, York and last time out against Durham City winning 21 – 16 – match report here: http://www.percyparkrfc.co.uk/index.php/169-match-reports-19-20/1st-xv-reports-19-20/959-good-contest
We have played Percy Park 18 times in recent times : Driffield winning 11 and Park 7. Last season we lost 18 – 9 at Park and won 49 – 21 at Kelleythorpe.
Driffield will be looking to bounce back from last weekend’s defeat at Scarborough. As I wrote in the match report, the final score didn’t reflect the game – a 16-point win for Scarborough was very flattering. Driffield just seemed to lose their way in the last quarter, and the 40 minute delay didn’t suit us. Full Match report here: https://driffieldrufc.com/2019/11/11/scarborough-32-16-driffield-saturday-9-november-2019/
We will be boosted by a few players returning to the squad following injuries : Davies, Ben Dinsdale and Brankley all coming back into the side. Robinson moves out to the wing, with Watts moving to 9. Longville moves to 10 and Blacker to 15. with Davies starting on the wing.
In the league, our defeat at Scarborough means we have dropped to 4th with 30 points. Scarborough are on top with 36 points, Moortown continue their strong start at 2nd with 31 points, and York are 3rd on 30 points. At the bottom, YMCA look set for a tough season on -29 points, West are struggling on 11 points, then Pocklington sit 3rd from bottom with 14 points.
Our 2nd XV will also trying to get back to winning ways after last week’s heavy defeat to Wharfedale, who continue to set the standard for 2nd teams in the league. This week, our 2nds have another hard game, playing Sheffield Tigers 2nd XV.
Our 3rd team faces Goole 2nds, and our 4ths face Goole 3rds on the floodlight pitch – their game has been moved to Driffield after the Goole pitch was waterlogged due to recent rain.
Driffield RUFC 1st XV v Percy Park RUFC 1st XV, Sat 16/11/2019 KO 2.15pm.
1 Robson, 2 Brumfield, 3 Furbank
4 Dinsdale J, 5 Cullen
6 Sowersby, 7 Turner, 8 Brankley
9 Watts, 10 Longville
12 Kelly, 13 Dinsdale B
11 Robinson, 14 Davies, 15 Blacker.
16 Maling, 17 Walgate, 18 Morris.
Good luck to all