Rishies Yorkshire Two winning streak comes to a halt at Wath

Old Rishworthians were completely outmuscled at Wath in a physical confrontation which saw them slip to their first defeat since the end of September, eventually losing 35-14.
Rishies toil at WathRishies toil at Wath
Rishies toil at Wath

It meant they dropped to second in Yorkshire Two and were leapfrogged by Roundhegians, who they play at Copley next Saturday.

Rishworthians Director of Rugby Jon Bake said he was very disappointed: “They had a much bigger, heavier and well drilled pack, who used their small pitch well, which stopped us from getting the ball wide, forcing us to have to break through in the centre.”

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It demonstrated why Wath have won all their home games, but have been unsuccessful on the road.

Right from the start Rishworthians, playing into a fierce wind, were sloppy, but in a game where they barely got 30 percent of the possession, their defence was strong.

But the weight of the home pack proved conclusive by the fact that three of their five tries came from pushovers and they constantly had the visitors going backwards in the scrums.

They absorbed a long period of Wath pressure and looked as though they might be able to breakaway when a try came out of the blue as a Wath forward suddenly emerged with the ball and ran to the line for a converted try.

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They started to come back with good work by left wing Anthony Shoesmith and hooker Toby Muscat-Baron, but soon found themselves forced back for a scrum near their line and the Wath pack sent them backwards for their first pushover. The conversion made it 14–0 at half time.

It was a similar story in the second half as Rishworthians struggled for possession and were constantly having to defend, with the back row of Jacob Bower, Ethan Pollard and Simanu Tusiga kept particularly busy.

Another powerful scrum drove them back again, but this time the ball came out for an inevitable converted try.

It was a signal for the visitors to rally and good work by Tusiga and skipper Callum Heseltine took them forward before the ball went out for Shoesmith to score in the corner. Josh Kelly added the conversion.

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The Wath pack then resumed their dominance and Rishworthians could do little to prevent two further pushover tries, which were both converted.

In the final minutes the visitors scored the best try of the game, Shoesmith breaking from his own half, before linking with fullback Luke Sutcliffe, who carved through the opposition before putting centre Sam Bake in under the posts. Kelly converted.

Rishworthians’ Development team beat Moortown 44–15 at Copley. There were three tries for Dylan O’Brien, two for Lee Atkinson and others by Finn Sutcliffe, Ryan Mudd and Kurt Sutcliffe. Kian Sutcliffe added two conversions.

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