​Scarborough RUFC work hard for derby win at Malton & Norton

In beautiful conditions, a bumper crowd watched both sides come out the blocks firing in the early exchanges at The Gannock, writes Charlie Hopper.

The first points of the afternoon came from the boot of Scarborough RUFC’s summer signing Ollie Carroll, who slotted a straightforward penalty to open up a 3-0 lead.

The home side were then shown two yellow cards for infringements and Scarborough made the advantage count with an unconverted try from Tom Hazledine.

Carroll added a further penalty to take a 11-0 lead before Shane Poole reduced the deficit with a penalty of his own for 11-3 after 30 minutes.

The home side then came to within a point of Matty Jones’ side courtesy of a converted try from winger Bill Collier.

On the stroke of half-time, it was Scarborough who re-established a comfortable lead when captain Sam Dawson crashed over in the corner to make it 16-10.

The second-half started in similar fashion, with Scarborough on the front foot.

Their patience was rewarded in the 52nd minute when Jonty Holloway picked a gap in the defence and raced through to score for 23-10.

Carroll kicked a long-range penalty just minutes later before Scarborough were reduced to 13 men when both Joe Marshall and Jordan Holloway were shown yellow cards and 10 minutes later Joe Davies followed his teammates for a 10-minute stint on the sidelines.

Malton continued to threaten and only managed to break through a resolute defence when Collier doubled his personal tally for 26-17 as the game came to a finish.

Scarborough are back at Silver Royd next weekend as they host Regional North 2 East rivals Moortown.

Ex-Scarborough RUFC junior Zoe Aldcroft helped England comfortably defeat world champions New Zealand 24-12 at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday to enhance their favourites tag heading into the home 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup.