Ilkley 19, Malton & Norton 25

Ilkley kicked off this second league encounter and from the start Malton and Norton made their intentions clear - they would run everything back at Ilkley.

The other significant early sign was that Ilkley were in no mood to tackle! Malton duly took play into the Ilkley half and forced a ruck infringement. Cooke stroked over the penalty, 0-3.

Ilkley forced a scrum from the kick-off, the ball was held up, and from the scrum Tim Barley made ground feeding the backs who linked well to set Sean Gilbert free to score in the corner, 5-3.

Malton stormed back at Ilkley and from a simple back movement and an Ilkley missed tackle Barbour, the centre, scored and Cooke converted. From the re-start, Malton infringed at a ruck and Cadman kicked a penalty. After only ten minutes the score was 8-10, reflecting the frenetic pace of the early part of the game, which continued for the rest of the first-half.

Malton infringed at the ruck on their own ten metre line and Cadman converted the penalty to inch Ilkley ahead, 11-10.

Ilkley at this time were living on scraps of possession and keeping Malton at bay by good defensive work from the backs. They then cleared the ball into the Malton half and forced an error by the Malton winger, who conceded a line-out. Ilkley rolled the resulting maul allowing Nesbit to score, 16-10. Shortly after, the referee sent Mitchell, Malton's back row, to the sin bin for persistent infringement.

Malton replied by running hard at Ilkley and poor tackling around the fringes allowed number 13, Whalley, to score wide out. With the conversion from Cooke, Malton took the lead again, 16-17.

From Ilkley's kick off, Malton ran the ball and forced a scrum. Ilkley were put under pressure and Cooke had an easy run in to score making it 16-22.

Cadman added a further penalty to bring the score to 19-22. With the last move of the half, Cadman kicked to the corner for Nulty to chase but unfortunately he was bundled into touch on the line, leaving the half time score at 19-22.

Apart from the ease with which Malton opened Ilkley's defence, the most telling point at half time was that Malton had scored 12 points with only fourteen men on the field. It was to Ilkley's good fortune that they were still in the game.

The second-half started with similar commitment from both sides with the main difference being Ilkley's improved tackling and an increase in mistakes from Malton. Nick Brook and Mike Leeson came on for Allan Moffat and Henry Noble and Malton likewise changed two players. It was parry and thrust from both sides but nobody could create a scoring opportunity until Ilkley were penalised for a scrum infringement which was converted by Malton, 19-25.

Ilkley then had the best concerted attack for fully 10 minutes, forcing scrum after line out, after rolling maul, but the Malton defence held firm and they finished the match on the attack.

This match against Malton showed a lack fitness and therefore a lack of pace from many of the Ilkley players. They gave Malton too much space and time to do whatever they pleased and as a result paid the price.

It was Ilkley's third game against a top three side in the league in as many weeks. They could, and should, have won all three.

l On Saturday Ilkley entertain Pocklington who are bottom of the league - this is a must win match which demands no complacency from Ilkley.