Ilkley 43

Kirkby Lonsdale 5

PAT Power's brace of tries saw Ilkley bounce back from their previous week's defeat with a commanding home victory.

Even when the visitors had decent spells of possession, they could just not find a way past the Ilkley defence and in the meantime, every mistake they made was ruthlessly punished.

Only at the death did Kirkby score a try, by which time Ilkley had had five points in the bag for 20 minutes, courtesy of five well-taken tries and five successful Charles Morgan kicks, one being a penalty.

Kirkby’s first error, a wayward pass, allowed Ilkley to counter, but a knock-on gave the visitors a scrum, still deep in their own half. They then held on in the tackle and were duly penalised and Morgan’s boot meted out the punishment, his kick going into touch just eight metres from the Kirkby line.

A copy-book catch-and-drive was followed by a touch down by Pat Power, whose influence on his side grew with every passing moment. Morgan added the extras.

A sweet break by Morgan followed shortly afterwards and having broken through the defensive line, Tom Milner and J-H Johnson were on hand to offer support before the final pass was delivered to full-back Charles Ramsay. The conversion attempt was Morgan’s only miss of the match.

Another penalty went Ilkley’s way when the Kirkby backs strayed offside and this time, Morgan’s kick dissected the posts.

Kirkby came back strongly in the second quarter of the game and started to cause one or two problems to the Ilkley scrum.

Scrum-half Harry Huddleston nearly broke through, but was hauled down.

Referee Owen Taylor finally gave Ilkley a scrum for a Kirkby forward pass, but the Kirkby pack disrupted it to the extent their opponents were penalised.

Fortunately for the Dalesmen, Kirkby made a mess of the line-out and Ramsay cleared to the 10-metre line. Another knock-on by Kirkby, after winning the line, gave Ilkley a scrum and this time, it was the visitors who were penalised and Morgan cleared the danger, only temporarily as it turned out.

Another penalty gave Kirkby a great chance to score, but having flashed the ball down the back-line, centre Tom Picktall ignored his overlap on the left wing and instead got clattered. Ilkley pounced on the loose ball and Johnson cleared to 15m out.

With half-time looming, Kirkby battered their way over the Ilkley goal-line twice, but the ball was adjudged to have been held up on both occasions.

At the start of the second period Power stole the ball from a startled Kirkby player and a feed to Andy Dixon saw a lovely dummy from the scrum-half. This was before a perfectly-weighted pass to the supporting Matt Burke gained Ilkley’s next five points, enhanced to seven by Morgan.

His brother, skipper Elliot, was ordered from the field for treatment, to be replaced by another brother, Blake, whose enthusiasm manifested itself with his first touch of the ball, setting up a try for number eight, Max McKay for Ilkley’s bonus point score, which was converted.

When Kirkby were penalised for lifting in the scrum, Ilkley kicked for position but lost the line, the only one of the day they did lose.

The visitors were awarded several penalties against them, none of which led to any score.

Indeed, it was Ilkley who took the next points after another steal, this time by Burke.

Kirkby knocked on trying to defend and from the scrum, a pick-up at the base and over went McKay for his second, again converted – 36-0.

Ilkley's flanker Will Coates received a yellow card for indiscipline. Power then went over for his second, followed by Morgan’s fifth success of the afternoon for 43-0.

Kirkby found enough gas in the tank for one more assault and earned the put in on Ilkley’s 5m line. A good solid scrum and the ball was whipped out to right wing Harry Ralston to score in the corner, very much a consolation try, not converted.

A very satisfying win for the Dalesmen, who remain in third place behind Blaydon and this week’s opponents, Billingham, who squeaked home against Sandal. Ilkley won in the north-east last season and a repeat performance would be just reward for all the effort put in by the coaches and players, week in, week out.