Dalesmen warned to keep their discipline

However, player-coach Hamish Pratt reckoned his team forgot a couple of important ps during their 21-17 defeat at Dinnington last Saturday – patience and pressure.

The weather forecasters had promised wall-to-wall sunshine last Saturday afternoon at Lodge Lane but only greyness ensued.

Dinnington Rugby Club sits atop a bleak landscape at the former coal-mining town that had the appearance of Idaho in early winter rather than South Yorkshire in autumn.

Regrettably the rugby offered up pretty much matched the environment – uninspiring.

The afternoon was livened up by what must have been the noisiest opposition of the season so far. Vocal chords of players and spectators alike were stretched by querying some refereeing decisions, but, in the main, the game was kept under control. If there were one or two errors of judgement, they came out pretty much equal in the end.

Ilkley were weakened by their growing injury list and a late call to Leon Treco to sort out a water problem. Andrew Merkin (hooker) and Nick Bell (fly half) made their first senior starts for some time.

Having both front-line kickers sidelined probably cost Ilkley the match, however. Kirk Arundale nobly stepped up to the plate, but two penalties and two conversions missed made the difference.

Dinnington’s very capable kicker Danny Wilkinson slotted three penalties and one conversion, missing only one kick at goal all afternoon.

What is more, two of Dinnington’s scores can be traced back to mistakes with the boot, their second penalty coming following a clearance straight out from outside the 22, and their second try emanating from a charged-down box kick. Both were errors which could (should?) have been avoided.

Ilkley, however, did fashion three tries. The first was a classic, and about the only bright spark in a dull first 40 minutes. The Dalesmen had been piling on the pressure and had won two line-outs close to Dinnington’s line. The ball was sent wide and winger Tuli Makaufi picked a superb angle to charge through, taking a pin-point accurate ball and scoring under the posts. Mercifully, Arundale made sure with the kick. That made it 7-3 with a couple of minutes to half-time.

Safety first was called for but an Ilkley scrum was pushed backwards and they were penalised. Dinnington had a line-out on the Ilkley 22.

It seemed they lost the ball but one of those refereeing decisions that will forever be a mystery, gave Wilkinson the opportunity to reduce the arrears to one point at half-time.

The Dalesmen played into the steadily increasing breeze in the second period and were soon under pressure. They withstood ten minutes before a free-kick conceded at a line-out forced a more severe offence and Wilkinson stepped up to stroke another penalty home to make it 9-7.

The kick-off put Ilkley back on the offensive and a series of penalties, scrums, line-outs and drives found them with a line-out five metres out.

Another fierce debate broke out about whose line it was but the line judge’s decision was upheld. Ilkley drove and the ubiquitous Pratt slithered and turned and reached out to score to give Ilkley a 12-9 advantage.

The kick-off once again brought territorial advantage for the home side, who put together six or seven excellent phases before forcing their way over for a converted try to regain the lead at 16-12.

With the clock running down, Ilkley's kick-off was this time returned with interest, and the Dalesmen were defending.

Defence is out of the question if matches are to be won from four-point arrears, and their only option when possession fell their way was to run it out from deep.

This they did – twice. The first time Makaufi was stopped on halfway. The second time he was away but scragged by the shirt collar and his pass fell into the astonished grasp of Dinnington centre Ryan Donnelly, who touched down wide out while the indignant Ilkley skipper was asking for the advantage played from a Dinnington knock-on to be played as expected as an Ilkley scrum.

Had the referee called “advantage over”? The try stood and Ilkley were 21-12 behind with five minutes to go.

The kick-off gave Ilkley the territory, and somehow they manufactured a bonus point-saving score out of nothing.

Tom Maclean provided the best rugby moment of the match. He danced and jigged his way through and round several defenders and suddenly found himself with space to make it into the Dinnington 22.

His pass found Iain MacKenzie on his inside and he in turn slipped a good pass to Stuart Vincent, who touched down to make the final score 21-17.

Three tries to Ilkley, two to Dinnington. The story of the match needs no further summing up. Pratt wasn’t about to criticise Arundale for his misses, however, saying: “We were just unfortunate that our two front-line kickers were injured.

“We missed a few kicks, which was also unfortunate, but it just proves that if you give away penalties at Yorkshire Division One level you will pay the price.”

Wearing an RFU hat in terms of employment means it would be undiplomatic, if not downright dangerous for Pratt to criticise referees, but he turned the argument around by saying: “We have to learn to play with the referee and get on with them.”

As for the inclusion of Merkin and Bell, Pratt revealed: “We have a lot of strength in depth at Ilkley at the moment, and we are putting out three teams most of the time. It was good to call on the experience of Andy Merkin and neither of the two who came in let us down.”

This week, as the old buildings fade away under the bulldozers, sixth-placed Ilkley welcome 11th-placed Castleford to Stacks Field for another league match.

Kick-off is at 3 pm, and Pratt said: “With our second XV playing quite well, we have made a few changes this week, but we need to do two things – be patient and build pressure. It is no good trying to score too early when we have possession.

“But looking at the season so far, it is going pretty well as we have won three and lost three, although maybe there are one or two games that we lost that we should have won.

“If we have a victory on Saturday, I would say our school report so far is all right but if we lose it would be below average.”