Pocklington RUFC suffer first home defeat of the season against Leos

With several First XV regulars unavailable through injury, Pocklington were able to give opportunities to players from the senior squad, writes Mark Fletcher.

The visitors have been on a good run of late and moving up the Counties 1 Yorkshire table.

With fly-half Ed Farmer directing traffic from midfield they were soon on the front foot, scoring an early try on seven minutes which Farmer converted.

Pock responded with forays into opposition territory and were unlucky not to level things after 15 minutes when scrum half Jack Bickerdike was held up over the line.

The scoreboard remained untroubled until the half-hour mark when Farmer slotted a penalty to extend the visitors' lead.

Leos continued to apply pressure and were rewarded with a try in the left hand corner on the stroke of half time making the score 0-15 at the interval.

Another penalty 10 minutes into the second period extended the lead to 18 points before Pocklington built an attack from a scrum penalty on the 22, creating an opening for Joe Holbrough to touch down, Christian Pollock’s conversion reducing the arrears to 7-18.

On the hour mark Pocklington were defending waves of attack on their own line and lock Will Winter was given a yellow card for a breakdown infringement.

Leos took full advantage and went over for a third try. Shortly afterwards the visitors moved the ball wide to create an overlap and a bonus point try in the left corner.

With replacement Rob Boddy making a welcome return to first team action at scrum-half, Pocklington created some openings and were rewarded on 70 minutes when wing Reece Dixon, also returning from long-term injury, crossed for a second Pock try.

The visitors finished with a penalty at the final whistle to secure a well earned win and leapfrog Pocklington in the league table.

Man of the match for Pocklington was Archie Willcock, whose ball carrying and defensive work was outstanding throughout.