Pocklington 3

Yorkshire Two

Pocklington’s league programme came to a close at Dinnington with a keenly fought game where the result was in the balance right to the end until Dinnington made sure with a converted try from the last play, twelve minutes into stoppage time.

The game was dominated by the strong, bitter wind that blew straight down Dinnington’s exposed pitch. Pocklington chose to face it in the first half and found themselves immediately under pressure.

Despite being the form team of recent months, and winning five of their previous six games, Dinnington were still one of four teams that could have been relegated on the final day, and so were fighting for their Yorkshire Two lives.

They threw everything at Yara Phosyn sponsored Pocklington for the first half hour but Pocklington’s tackling was strong and Dinnington were restricted to a penalty in the 21st minute.

Though Pocklington were on terms in most phases they found themselves under pressure in the set scrum from the start. And Dinnington’s scrum advantage became more emphatic when Pocklington lost prop Simon Morrells with a sprained ankle. But Pock stuck to their task, Dinnington were off target with a couple of long penalties, and Pocklington lifted the seige through some strong runs by Scott Littlefair and deft box-kicks from Ben Rees, ending the first half attacking the home line.

The wind looked to be worth more than three points, and Pocklington kicked off the second half in a good position. But this time it was Dinnington’s turn to defend resolutely and Pocklington were never really able to get a platform within sight of the home line.

In hindsight, Pocklington made an error of judgement in the 52nd minute when they were given a straight penalty in a kickable position but chose to go for a quick tap when an overlap beckoned on the right. They remained camped in Dinnington territory without exerting real pressure, and they finally got back on terms when young prop Chris Morton’s thumping tackle created a penalty that Nick Bennett banged between the posts.

But to their credit, Dinnington, determined to make sure they did not rely on other results for survival, upped their efforts in the final quarter, using their superior scrum as a platform to attack.

Nevertheless, it remained 3-3 and Dinnington’s anxiety, both on the field and the touchline, started to grow until they kicked a straightforward penalty to edge ahead again with seven minutes of normal time to go.

With their confidence boosted, Dinnington finished the stronger. The stoppage time rolled on relentlessly for ten minutes but Dinnington finally ran back a drop-out and broke through to score, adding the conversion with the last kick of the day.

When the rest of the results came through, it was Goole who had gone down from Yorkshire Two, with Pock-lington finishing in fifth position.