Pocklington RUFC remain unbeaten after earning victory at title rivals Scarborough
The clash of two unbeaten North 2 East teams saw Pocklington RUFC come away from Scarborough RUFC’s Silver Royd ground with a 38-32 victory on Saturday afternoon.
A tense first half included a long stoppage for serious injury to talismanic Will Sayer, but Pocklington upped their game after the interval, stunning the home side with three tries in five minutes, augmented by Christian Pollock's immaculate goal kicking.
Scarborough pulled two scores back late on, but Pocklington had enough in hand for a memorable success and take over at the top of the table.
Scarborough took a seventh minute penalty lead, but Pocklington responded immediately. Harry Matthews’ kick-pass found Jed Jackson wide right and opposite wing Flynn Sangwin steamed up inside him to score, Pollock converting from wide out.
A spate of penalties put Scarborough on the front foot, and they regained the lead with a 20th-minute try. Pocklington came out firing after Sayer had been stretchered off, but Scarborough ended the half pressing hard with a 10-7 lead.
Having worked hard to keep Scarborough out in the first period, Pocklington threw away possession to concede two minutes after the restart.
But they hit straight back, Matty Downes bashing up the middle before slick hands freed Jackson to the line, a penalty try awarded as he was hit high in scoring.
Pocklington then surged clear with their three-try burst. They switched play wide following a lineout drive for Sangwin to race to the left corner, Pollock adding the touchline conversion.
Downes charged again from the kick-off, and No 8 Archie Wilcock used his backs as a foil to gallop over; then scrum-half Rob Boddy straightaway intercepted a pass to sprint 60 yards to the posts. Pollock's two conversions made it 15-35 and Pocklington looked out of sight.
But as their exertions told they failed to shut up shop. Pock held Scarborough up in-goal before the home side came again to cross in the corner.
Pollock maintained the three-score margin with a penalty; before Scarborough crashed over twice in the dying minutes to claim two losing bonus points but leave Pocklington celebrating the win with some gusto.