James Knock
Having finished top of their league it was Malton’s second string’s prerogative to host Scarborough in the semi-final of the playoffs.
Malton kicked off playing towards the town and spent the opening 5 minutes in the Scarborough half. Unfortunately Malton lost stalwart prop Welch in minute 7 with a hand injury which resulted in Coe taking his place. Play was end to end with both sides nervously testing each other with no clear advantage in the early stages and Malton’s no9 tending to try and find a gap on his own with little result.
In the 15th minute Malton were in the visitor’s red zone but a knock forward spoilt the position. From the defensive scrum Scarborough failed to find touch but another knock forward again took away the chance to resume the attack.
However with the team now having dispelled their earlier nerves they lined up for a home throw in 10 metres out from the Scarborough line with powerful prop Armitage standing at 9 and as he peeled round the tail end he connected with his fellow prop Coe who in turn made vital metres and from the resulting 2nd phase the ball was moved to Atkinson on his wing who beat three men to dot down near the sticks. 7-0
From the restart Malton following a decision regarding hands and weight in an attempted jackal were penalised and from a line out Scarborough collected 5 points.
7-5
From the restart Scarborough gave up a high tackle penalty and Malton’s skipper pointed to the uprights for his kicker Finlinson to collect 3 points from 27 metres out. 10-5
Three minutes later Malton were guilty of leaving a tackled man on his own and a Scarborough player simply walked round, picked up the ball, and said thank you as he scored near the posts. 10-12
This completed a 12 minute burst of scoring at regular intervals yielding 22 points between two evenly balanced teams.
Malton with 5 minutes of this opening half remaining brought on fresh legs with prop Humphries replacing Armitage. He immediately was in the thick of the action as Malton again visited the Scarborough red zone but no further scores came before the interval.
The halftime talk and instructions from the two coaches had an immediate effect. From the restart Malton were soon at the business end and a tackle together with the follow up jackal earned a penalty and the pragmatic decision to take 3 points and the lead. 13-12
At the restart Scarborough kicked the ball directly into touch resulting in a scrum on the centre spot, and this simple error seemed to galvanise Malton. There followed a try down the clubhouse side as good as has been seen at the Gannock this season.
From a Malton fed set scrum just inside their 20 metre line and in midfield the ball was delivered swiftly from the base by the no9 to Finlinson who fixed his opposite no and delivered a perfect pass to his inside centre and their followed a classic example of letting the ball do the work with excellent timing of passes down the three quarters to connect with a charging fullback Jefferson who had joined the attack and ran fully 35 metres to dot down in the corner. This try was the confidence booster that set Malton up for the remainder of the contest. 18-12
In the 57th minute Malton lost their big hard running centre Tindall to what looked like a badly damaged nose and under the laws of the game he was sidelined whilst the home physio staunched the flow of blood. He resumed his place 10 minutes later.
Malton now in control left it till the 72nd minute to wrap up this contest when rather like the Red Sea the Scarborough defence opened wide for Finlinson almost on the point of passing to his midfielder to change his mind and sail through the wide gap for a self converted try. 25-12
The East Championship playoff final takes place next Saturday at Beverley RUFC with a 3.00pm kickoff with Selby providing the opposition. I am sure that as many as can will take the scenic ride over The Wolds to support the boys.
MALTON: Archie Armitage, Harry Alngohuro, Lewis Welch, Sam Hancock, Rory Bevin, Tom Pearson, Tom Barker, Henry Cornforth, Presley Carr, Adam Finlinson, Conor Biggins, Charlie Tindall, Matt Clarke, Tom Atkinson, Matt Jefferson.
Bench: George Turnbull, Luke Humphries, Dan Coe, Joe Browne, Finn Tumman
Scorers: Atkinson 1 try
Jefferson 1 try
Finlinson 1 try, 2 cons, 2 pens
