Driffield 53 Ilkley 9

Driffield are a club that consistently threaten to go places but occasionally slip up. In recent times they have ventured into National leagues but seem to have found their level in this excellent North East league One.

On their day they can be superb, on others they flatter to deceive.

Today was a day when they turned on the form and knocked a plucky and much changed Ilkley side for seven tries, four penalties and three conversions.

A veritable hammering one may conjecture, but actually it wasn’t.

Ilkley had one of those games when everything goes wrong at the start of each half. Do they forget the team talk so fresh in their minds? How can it go so wrong so soon into the play?

In the first-half, playing with the downfield breeze, they had Driffield pegged back inside their 22 but slack tackling allowed them to run out of defence and then sheer speed and power took over for full-back Lee Birch to score under posts.

Thus 7-0 after five minutes was a setback from which they almost, but never really, recovered.

At the start of the second-half they were still in touch at 18-9, having conceded one try to centre Tom Wright and two penalties but scoring three well struck penalties of their own through Peter Shanks’ in form boot.

Moreso, during the half they had played with 14 men for ten minutes as Jon Hutchinson was yellow-carded for repeatedly off-side offence. Remarkably, it was anyone’s game at the interval.

That small wave of optimism amongst the Ilkley supporters was extinguished within a couple of moments of Driffield power and, it has to be said, woeful Ilkley defending.

First scrum-half Craig Gray burst from the back of a scrum 30 metres out and headed diagonally from the touchline to the posts without it seemed a hand being laid on him.

Then from even further out a scorching play between Aussie Jordan McGregor and full-back Birch saw the free running Birch bag his second try of the match.

The Dalesmen were doomed to damage limitation in a game that had slipped away from them in four torrid minutes.

Seven minute later Tom Wright added his second try with a sublime piece of open flowing rugby in a back line brimming with confidence. Ilkley simply had no answer to this kind of play and were 39-9 adrift.

To their eternal credit the Dalesmen battled on and held Driffield at bay until the half hour. Two more tries followed, both converted to make the final score 53-9.

This might all seem doom gloom but the fighting spirit with backs against the wall is still burning deep inside the ranks of the Dalesmen.

They did show some flair and indeed came close to scoring through plucky skipper Stuart Vincent whose final pass was picked off by a retreating Driffield defender.

They pressed the Driffield line for several phases three or four times in the second period but a defence as mean as their backs were profligate prevented any consolation score.

They battled on to the last as tempers became heated in the closing minutes forcing referee Mr Richard Downing to show yellow to Charlie Cudworth, but by that that time the game was gone, long gone.

The Ilkley team were shorn of ever-present lock Dan Wright, scrum-half Nick Heron and centre Simon Smith for this encounter.

These absentees gave a chance to Matt Williams and A Tinker who acquitted themselves manfully.

There was a welcome return too for Phil Howells for whom this was the first start since way back in the 2008-9 campaign.

He looked every bit back to form until a knee injury forced him to retire and Pete Shanks too succumbed to an arm injury.

Young Ilkley stars in the making Callum Gillon and Adam Kershaw deputised but the changes meant players were out of position adding to the difficulties playing against a side with altogether too much talent, too much power, too much speed for the Dalesmen to cope with.

On Saturday Ilkley entertain Durham City at Stacks Field, kick-off 3pm.