Pretty much every match provided some sort of surprise or talking point yesterday.
Bradford Salem 30-20 Old Crossleyans
- big bonus point win for BS in the basement battle. I'm not sure if Crocs managed a try bonus point but they probably came away with nothing. Did 30 players manage to stay on the pitch?
Doncaster Phoenix 14-61 Selby
The enviable win but Donny are definitely showing some green shoots with two trays and limiting Selby to less than their previous match.
Malton and Norton 34-19 Morley
This was a big win for Malton and although I had them down to win this was a thumping in the context of the league. The fear of relegation is obviously greater than the hope of promotion. Maybe the Malton Chairman will realise that it's better to trust your local players than desperately begging around the world.
Old Brodleians 41-15 Moortown
Another big surprise. Generally Brods are expected to win at home but Moortown have been firing of late. Having seen Brods the week before I thought Moortown would run in quite a few tries.
Pontefract 12-22 Pocklington
Whilst the result was expected, it shows what a tough place Ponte is to win at. It seems Pock had to dig deep.
Wetherby 27-29 Scarborough
Tough match for Scarborough. We had the bonus point by halftime but Wetherby weren't for giving up and they fought hard until the last minute. They were certainly up for it and fronted up physically. There was never really any chance of Wetherby winning until they scored a very late converted try which left a nervous 4 minutes. Scarborough saw it out. They are too good to go down.
With 15 points left to play for and Scarborough only needing 2 to be champions it looking likely we'll be saying goodbye for a season at least. I'm not being disrespectful to Donny who we have at home next, I'm confident over three matches we'll get 2 points.
Morley seemed as if they were still on the coach for Saturdays game, an abject performance all round. At one point they got back into the match but minutes later seemingly gifted Malton a try and that was game over. All credit to Malton who played well, slowing Morley's ball and picking holes in the defence to bring home a comprehensive win. Still plenty to play for but Morley will be hoping for some consistency over the final few weeks and hoping they can hang on to their play off spot.
Hard fought away win for Pock on Saturday, Ponte's willingness to trust the back line and run the ball, added to by some excellent turnovers at the breakdown, had us on the back foot and made for nervy finish for the Pock faithful, great effort from the lads to dig in and get the result, a cracking try by our young centre, the highlight of a great game of rugby.
Great banter between the two sets of supporters in the stand, and a touch of class from the Ponte fans congratulating us at the end, seem like a bit of a cliché to keep saying this, but the game was a great advert for the league. I think on Saturdays performance Ponte have enough to stay in this league, should they end up in the playoff.
Good wins for M&N and Salem, give them a bit of breathing room and a return to form for Brods keeps the promotion playoffs ever harder to predict.
Interested to hear peoples thoughts on the playoffs, is the league better off this year with teams still having something to play for with three games to go?
Will it be a matter of waiting to see if they create a raft of walkovers?
A disappointing footnote from Saturdays match at Wetherby.
A very high and hard shoulder shot to jaw has resulted in a 17 year old Scarborough player having 4 teeth dislodged from the front of his mouth. The tackle was horrific and is clear to see on VEO.
The referee deemed this a yellow card.
Of course it's disappointing that any player has suffered an injury, however to call the tackle horrific is incorrect.
From the sideline the tackler dipped their height and wrapped their arms, and the ball carrier dropped their height (looked like they slipped) going in to contact.
An unfortunate rugby incident, yes. A horrific, disappointing foot note from the game, no. Would be interesting to see the Veo.
On the rest of the game, a spirited performance by a Wetherby team still blighted by injuries with many players out of position. Scarborough were disappointed by their performance, however Wetherby's tactics of competing at the breakdown and not letting them retain easy possession seemed to fluster the visitors and earned Wetherby some very valuable points.