Scarborough 25 - 13 Malton & Norton
MALTON BROUGHT TO EARTH
James Knock
Malton arrived at Silver Royd shorn of their coach who was with his expectant wife. During warm up they lost benchman Hume to a ankle injury, and a lengthy queue was seen loitering at the physio’s dug out, not a great portent!
Scarborough opened up proceedings with a stiff breeze behind them and a rapid fire opening score from their no8 rocked Malton back on their heels, a position from which as the game unfolded they struggled to recover.
Malton initially had more than parity at scrum time and the first scrum should have earned them a penalty for a mighty shove on Scarborough’s put in, but it was not to be. In the 7th minute after a clever chip kick by Hoggard into space he was cynically taken out following up by the Scarborough 7 who earned a yellow card for his efforts, but more importantly from a Malton perspective ensured the first of Hoggard’s injuries.
On eleven minutes Scarborough scored through their newly acquired jack in a box no 9 for a 7 pointer with Malton failing to make the first up tackles, a disappointing feature of the game as a whole.
But on 16 minutes Malton struck back with a traditional Featherstone rumble for five points only. Sadly the prop required several minutes treatment on a torn calf muscle which four minutes later resulted in substitute Hopkins being pressed into service.
Scarborough upped the tempo and with their highly mobile no5 running through the defence at will and distributing ball with all the finesse of a fly half it wasn’t long before their no13 crossed the whitewash for a 7 pointer on 22 minutes.
Seven minutes later the Scarborough prop earned a yellow card which gave Malton the chance to press them up front and just before the return of the aforementioned Angus scurried over from a quick tap for 5 points only.
19-10 to the hosts and Malton had dragged themselves back into the game. However failure to catch the ball cleanly at the restart in injury time and a technical offside gave the Scarborough 10 an easy 3 points to make Malton’s life a bit tougher.
With the wind at their backs Malton should have had the nous to punt the ball deep on this large pitch and squeeze Scarborough in their half. Sadly with the hero of last week injured watching from the stands his replacement failed to implement this simple tactic.
Possession was shared evenly in this half and Scarborough again used their big ball carriers to sweep downfield with suspect first up tackling a feature but resolute cover by the back 3 saved the day on several occasions, punctuated with the visitors giving up penalties to present Scarborough with good field position.
On 49 minutes Stephenson was removed from the action the tight hamstring he acquired in the warm up finally giving way and Inman came on at 9 Angus moving to the wing and Bell at 13.
Malton’s woes were compounded 2 minutes later with the departure of Hoggard and Stephenson limping back on.
Five minutes later hopes were raised when a good strong run from Bell advanced play by 30 metres only for a spilt ball to be returned with interest by Scarborough a full 50 metres to set up a penalty shot courtesy of a high tackle yellow for Bowman duly converted by the excellent Scarborough 10.
Malton now at last showed some character and with the score at 25-10 decided to kick a penalty on 80 minutes to close the gap and with eight minutes injury time promised, chase a losing bonus point try.
This was not helped when Hughes traded places with Bowman in the sin bin, and the game was up for Malton beaten it must be said by the better team.
All in all a chastening experience for the team and supporters and after last weeks high, proof that rugby can be a fickle mistress!
The boys must lick their wounds, regroup, and look inwardly and honestly at their collective failings and above all come out fighting at Old Brodleians next week, who new to the division lie in wait in second place, the only side with six wins in the bag in this tough league.
Malton: James Bulmer, Will Bell, Jacob Stephenson, Matt Bowman, Ali Fothergill, Tom Hoggard, Paul Angus, Nick Salisbury, Bailey Lamb, Rob Featherstone, Sean Emms, Will Dunn, Will Hughes, Tom Lowry, Sam Triffitt(c).
Subs: Pete Hopkins, Chris Inman, (both used)
Tom Hume, (not used)
Scorers: Featherstone 1 try.
Angus 1 try, 1 pen.
