Westoe 39

Yarnbury 18

YARNBURY returned from Westoe after receiving a good lesson in making home advantage count.

Westoe were clearly the better side on the day. However, at half-time they had been held to a 10-8 lead and the visitors were in with a chance. Within 15 minutes Yarnbury's hopes had been blown away as Westoe's marauding forwards were unstoppable playing downhill and four tries were scored in rapid succession. Looking down the barrel of a 50-point defeat Yarnbury rallied and scored two tries to finish on top in the last quarter and they managed to bring some respectability to the scoreline.

The home side was inspired by their close defeat at Brownberrie Park earlier in the season and the fact that the Horsforth boys sit one place ahead at the top of the league table.

From the outset Westoe were highly motivated and they took full advantage by scoring an early dropped goal. This was followed by a converted try as the home side exploited some poor tackling in the backs. The Durham society referee bamboozled both sets of players with some terrible decisions and it was a shame such an important fixture had been given to someone clearly unable to cope. Despite increasing frustration Yarnbury hit back. The forwards were held up short of the Westoe line before an overlap was found out wide and Kevin Hussey was on hand to score. Steve Galbraith later added a penalty but unfortunately missed two other attempts, which would have given Yarnbury the lead.

The second-half started badly and got worse as Yarnbury were unable to cope with the Westoe blitz as they chalked up an unassailable lead.

Helped by some poor tackling Westoe tied the game up. Hussey was stretchered off to hospital with a seemingly career threatening back injury and it was during the 10 minute wait for the ambulance that Yarnbury found new resolve to bounce back.

Steve Lee took a quick tap penalty and a miss-pass straight to Hussey's replacement Steve Read, led to a try in the corner. Chris Wray entered the fray for Steve Riley and Warren Wilman moved into the centre berth where he gave a hearty performance. Ten minutes from time the unthinkable happened, second row Lian Rigby, despite years of frustration, finally scored his first ever try.

He latched on to a pass from a ruck and avoided a two-man overlap to drive over the line surrounded by three Westoe tacklers. This made the final score 39-18.

Wayne Butterfield played well at No 8 but it was a shame others could not quite mirror his effort.

Despite this below par performance Yarnbury are more than capable of bouncing back if they are to maintain the progress made this season.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.