TECHNOLOGY THE FINAL ARBITER
James Knock
We have all seen some notable sights on a rugby pitch. Erica Roe, Dooley v The entire French pack, Blanco gassing Campese, Lomu trampling over Underwood, to name but a few. Today we witnessed a mobile phone deciding the outcome of this Papa John plate semi-final. A wag in the crowd thought the officials were ordering a pizza!
With Goole’s main pitch covered by a vast marquee this semi-final was moved to a side pitch. Malton kicked off and earned a penalty early on within range but the attempt was off target. The opening ten minutes were spent in the Goole half of the park but already small inaccuracies were evident as several moves with the plentiful supply of ball fizzled out.
In the tenth minute Goole made their first incursion into the Malton half and the ball was recycled twice and fed to the winger who cut inside for the supporting, speedy no9 to take the scoring pass. 0-7
There followed a 15 minute period of intermittent kick tennis with both sides probing the middle sector of the pitch.
In the 33rd minute Malton’s midfielder Foan picked up a yellow card and Goole pounced immediately. With the extra man they outflanked Malton and slipped an inside pass for their lock to power over. 0-12
A mounting penalty count of 7-2 was proving costly in terms of lost territory and half time was signalled as Malton gave up the 8th.
Malton opened the 2nd half on the front foot but lost our young fly half after 3 minutes to an ankle injury resulting in Bulmer moving up to fill the slot.
Malton at last were now fronting up to the task and putting together the phases up front and in the 47th minute pushed Wainwright over for our opening score. 7-12
The good work of the Malton pack continued for the next 15 minutes but the odd dropped and wayward pass spoiled the attacking positions.
In the 56th minute Malton rearranged the pack with Vaughan making way and Triffitt moving to prop with Cornforth slotting into the back row.
Despite this reordering the Goole 13 from loose play carved his way through the Malton defence for 7 points one minute later. 7-19
At this stage the hard working Emms gave way to Browne. It would be fair to say that Goole were getting the rub of the green in regard to the decisions of the man in charge of the whistle.
However in the final 10 minutes Malton as a unit stepped up to the plate and in the 70th minute a clever grubber chip through from Bulmer was picked up by Ray who needed no second invitation beating a couple of defenders to put his side back in the frame. 14-19
In the 75th minute Goole defending their red zone pick up a yellow card and Malton took full advantage. Choosing to scrum, the resulting phase ball was driven over with the tireless Vasconcelos claiming the try only to be denied with a non-grounding decision. With an offside penalty in the bag Malton chose to scrum again and with Boothman and Gwilliam turning the screw shunted the Goole eight over the whitewash for Triffitt to make no mistake at the base leaving Bulmer to add the extras and victory. 19-19
But plan B and extra time became the order of the day; 10 minutes each way. With Boothman to the fore in both set and loose, in the 88th minute position was set up for the Ray again to bamboozle the defence and loop round under the sticks for a 7 pointer and 12 minutes game management.
Goole were not to be denied and on the stroke of full time scored a converted try to level the score. 26-26
There followed 20 minutes of pure farce that Brian Rix or John Cleese would have been proud to commit to paper. The match officials conferred aided by various coaches, team managers, ball boys, spectators, mobile phones et al, before awarding the game to the away side. No mention was made of Goole playing all 4 rounds at home in contrast to Malton’s one home round, a separate issue that the organisers of this cup might address.
Next Saturday with 4 games scheduled at Darlington Mowden Park, Malton are slated as the fourth game with a 5.00 pm kick off.
SEE YOU THERE.
More details will follow..... tomorrow.
Malton: Ben Boothman, Joao Vasconcelos, Liam Vaughan, Will Dunn, Sean Emms, Ted Wainwright, Tom Lowry, Sam Triffitt(c), Paul Angus, Jack Jones, William Collier, Thomas Foan, Tom Ray, Alistair Fothergill, James Bulmer.
Subs: Pete Hopkins, Edmund Gwilliam, Edward Browne, Jacob Stephenson, Harry Alngohuro, Henry Cornforth.
