SIMON SMITH: Guys did the business in tough conditions

Saturday's 33-0 win against North Ribblesdale was yet another picked up despite testing conditions that don't suit our game.
Simon Smith's weekly Scarborough RUFC columnSimon Smith's weekly Scarborough RUFC column
Simon Smith's weekly Scarborough RUFC column

We’ve played on some difficult pitches in the winter months, but our home pitch has been superb most weeks.

Even the Silver Royd pitch was almost unplayable on Saturday given the really poor weather we had last week.

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The referee had to have a look before the game started, and I had a chat with their coach about whether the game should actually go ahead.

They had travelled a long way, as had the ref, so we decided to get the game on.

It was wet, cold and blowing a gale, suffice to say the conditions don’t suit our game at all, but once again the players dug deep and picked up another important win.

Without being at all offensive, they were quite one-dimensional and when they couldn’t find a way through us, they had no plan b or c.

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In the absence of Nino Cutino and Phil Watson, I thought Sam Dawson and Mikey Whitton were exceptional.

Sam has been doing it week-in, week-out for us, but this was Mikey’s first start for a while and he really grabbed his opportunity and impressed us.

I also have to sing the praises of Tom Ratcliffe, whose kicking both off the tee and out of hand has been absolutely outstanding.

He has been great covering for Tom Harrison at fly-half.

To beat any side to nil in this league is pretty tough going, so the guys have done a great job.

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We now move onto what will be another tough home game against Old Rishworthians this weekend.

After that, we have a free weekend before some huge games against the sides battling for promotion with us.

I’m hoping Tom Harrison will be available this week to return from his injury, and he’ll be coming back into the mix-up at the best possible time as we look to try and win promotion.

With it being half-term this week, I’m away with the family, but training is in the capable hands of Matty Jones and Tom Harrison, ably assisted by James Perrett and Phil Watson.

I’m sure the guys will be prepared thoroughly ahead of what is another crucial home game this weekend.