Scarborough 25 Ilkley 17

With more than one eye on Easter Saturday’s Intermediate Cup semi-final, Ilkley’s made seven changes to the side that had demolished Huddersfield YMCA the week before.

Coupled with their wretched away form this season, it came as no real surprise when they were defeated 25-17 However there were some bright moments and after an early assault from the home side Ilkley took the lead.

Ollie Renton took a quick penalty and made ground before linking with scrum half Kirk Arundale who sent right wing Callum Gillon in for a well-taken try.

Scarborough stand-off Rob James narrowly missed with a drop-goal attempt before Scarborough’s right wing Corey Dennis went over in the corner for a try.

The home side were now playing with more composure and when full-back Graeme Jeffrey caught his own kick and chase ball in Ilkley’s 22, the visitors were in trouble.

Ilkley stole the Scarborough line-out but then knocked on and from the resultant scrum, flanker Luke Raines touched down close enough to the posts to make Tom Ratcliff's conversion a formality.

Then came an act of folly. Ilkley’s kick-off was too long, enabling the Scarborough defence to hoof the ball back over the advancing forwards.

The ball was allowed to bounce and Scarborough’s onrushing backs snapped up the chance to send scrum-half Jake Rollinson over for a try which Ratcliff converted.

The half ended with Ilkley being penalised for back-chat, but the kick missed but the visitors were still 19-5 down after the 40 minutes.

Ilkley took over completely at the restart and a strong run from left-wing Pete Turner gave them the chance to steal at the line-out.

Driving strongly over the Scarborough line, referee Mike Ramsden deemed the ball to have been held up, but from the resultant scrum, a lovely dummy by stand off Sam Clewes allowed him to score, then convert his own try on his debut.

Ilkley were on a roll and Renton and John Oakes combined brilliantly to set up Gillon’s second try which made the score 19-17.

Ilkley looked as if they could pull off an unlikely win. Unfortunately, this was not to be.

After 25 minutes of domination, Scarborough managed to break-out of their own 22 after an astonishing four unpenalised knock-ons by both sides.

Very much against the run of play, Ilkley conceded a penalty and Ratcliff duly added the three points.

Another inexplicable penalty gave Ratcliff the opportunity to snatch Ilkley’s losing bonus point, which he did.

Ilkley’s makeshift side did very well considering that they had a new back line while the pack played extremely well.