Malton and Norton RUFC

With the thermometer registering 27 degrees Malton arrived at the well-appointed Silver Royd home to Scarborough RUFC showing 3 changes in personnel to last week’s starting line-up with skipper Triffitt taking his place in the back row and Bulmer starting at 10 with Poole dropping to the bench.

The ground was an island in the surrounding sea fret and Scarborough kicked off towards the Cloughton end of the ground spending the first 4 minutes in the Malton half.  At the first scrum with a home feed Scarborough chipped through the Malton defence the ball sitting up perfectly for the winger to collect and stride over for 5 points only.  In the tenth minute following a brief spell in the home half of the park a turnover resulted in Scarborough advancing to the Malton red zone and with discipline or lack of it becoming a factor Malton surrendered a penalty under the sticks to go 8 points down.

In the next 10 minutes Malton spent time in the opposition’s half and it was Scarborough’s turn to get the wrong side of the referee. A promising move by the visitors on 20 minutes was spoilt by poor passing and spilled ball was hacked through by Scarborough with Foan scuttling back to save a certain score.

At this point in proceedings returning skipper Triffitt took the game by the scruff and leading from the front motivated his side to camp on the home line and on 27 minutes following strong carries by Lowry and Lockwood the skipper sliced through a gap to open his team’s account and register the score at 7-8.

Five minutes later again camped on the home 10 metre zone Triffitt taking a quick tap penalty fed Angus who waltzed through tepid defence to score an unconverted try and give Malton a 12-8 lead.  Following a yellow card against Scarborough for taking Vaughan out when he was nowhere near the ball the resulting penalty was stroked through the uprights by Angus from fully 30 metres out and 5 or 6 metres to the left to give Malton a deserved 7 point lead at halftime.

Malton made a change in the front row wheeling on Featherstone after the break and Scarborough who had used the boot only for the odd spell of tennis rugby now started to put the ball up high and shallow and the desired effect took place with Malton spilling what should have been regulation catches.  An attacking position was spoilt with sloppy passing in midfield following a line penalty on the home 10 metre line but minutes later amends were made with the ball passed simply through the hands without long looping missed passes to find Emms lurking on the wing (he denies resting there from the line out 2 minutes previously) and a straight forward run in for the second rower with another fine conversion by Angus to take the score to 22-8.
Scarborough now tiring were being given the run around by a Malton side now running through their moves looking to secure the bonus point try.  However on 61 minutes Lowry was shown a yellow card and in his absence Scarborough after the penalty award contrived to knock the ball forward thus ending hopes of a comeback.  The visitors changed their fly half on 70 minutes with the patient Poole giving a ten minute cameo and showing how fortunate Malton are to have two no 10’s with differing attributes.  Now in overdrive in the 75th minute Malton’s pack took the home eight to the cleaners at set piece and drove them several metres over the line for a simple dot down by Angus which he converted to seal the win and bonus point.

A good all round performance by Malton with Triffitt showing his skills as both player and also as a leader when by example he roused his side for the last two thirds of the game.

The rustiness of last week was less evident today and mention must be made of a good display of tackling and line out work by Read and the tireless Lowry with Foan marshalling his backs to good effect for the bulk of the game.
Next week we entertain Selby who are one league place above and averaging 35 points over the opening two games.

MALTON :   Nick Salisbury,  John Vasconcelos,  Liam Vaughan,  Charlie Read,  Sean Emms,  Tom Barker,  Tom Lowry,  Sam Triffitt (c),  Paul Angus,  James Bulmer,  Eddie Browne,  Tom Foan,  Ed Lockwood,  Ali Fothergill,  Blair Foster.
Subs: (all used)
   Rob Featherstone, Shane Poole, Archie Johnson (senior debut)
Scorers:
              Triffitt.  1 try
              Angus.  2 tries 3 cons 1 pen
              Emms.   1 try