This Weekend’s Action 14/09/2019

Our 1st XV travel north to face Durham RUFC, 2nd’s welcome Sheffield RUFC and the ladies travel to Hull Ionion’s for their 2nd league match.

Following our win against York in the opening league weekend, Driffield 1st XV travel to Durham City RUFC this Saturday. The last time we met was in the 2016 / 2017 season. We both won our home fixtures, At Driffield the score was 39 – 13, whilst earlier in the season Durham won 25 – 11. Durham finished 3rd from bottom that season, meaning relegation to D&N1 for the next two seasons. They nearly returned to North One East the next season, finishing 2nd in the league, earning a home play-off against Scarborough. For some reason the two clubs could not reach an agreement about when the game should be played, which meant Durham had to hand the win to Scarborough. Last season they didn’t make the same mistake, finishing the season in top spot and returning to North One East.

Durham had a good result last weekend, beating the travelling Kendal 45 – 5. An interesting result, as many would have Kendal as pre-season pace setters.

Around the league, Bradford & Bingley started with a win, beating Percy Park 25 – 14 in Bradford. Cleckheaton just beat Scarborough 32 – 29 at Cleck. A last minute conversion saw Malton & Norton take the points at the Gannock, beating Huddersfield YMCA 40 – 38. Morley beat West Hartlepool 29 – 5. Finally newcomers Moortown left Pocklington with the points after a 26 – 17 win.

We also had a good start to league, beating York 22 – 18 at Kelleythorpe. The match was as tight as the score suggests, both teams looking a little rusty at times, a very pleasing point was that we managed to win a close game, last year we tended to be on the wrong end of tight games. Full match report here: https://www.driffieldrufc.com/2019/09/09/saturday-7-september-driffield-22-18-york/

A couple of changes from last weeks victory.

Ryan Girking has picked up a knock, which means John Soanes starts in the centres, with Ben Dinsdale making a welcome return on the bench. Sam Robson & Henry Furbank have swapped round, Robson starting with Furbank on the bench. Oli Cooper starts in a straight swap for Harrison Dodds, who has picked up an niggle. Sowersby gives way to Brant on the Bench.

Other than that we field the same side as last weekend. See below for full team sheet.

The 2nd team started their season with a good win away at York, winning 26 – 10. This week they have a tough match as they welcome Sheffield RUFC 2nd’s to Kelleythorpe. KO 3pm.

The ladies completed the clean sweep on Sunday with a 48 – 5 win over Lincoln Ladies at Kelleythorpe. They travel to Hull Ionian Ladies on Sunday in the Womens NC 2 North. KO is 2pm.

Full house of Mini / Junior training on Sunday at Driffield too, with all ages covered on a training day.

We still have a few tables spare for our Charity Day, 28th September, The 1sts play Cleckheaton. We have James Mckenzie, owner & chef of the Michelin star Pipe & Glass, South Dalton coming to cook at the club for the day. Please get in touch if you are interested in taking a table.

Durham City RUFC v Driffield RUFC, Sat 14/09/2019, KO3PM

1 – Felix Nellon, 2 – Guy Brumfield, 3 – Sam Robson

4 – Oliver Cooper, 5 – James Dinsdale

6 – Alex Cullen, 7 – Rob Mewburn (c), 8 – Adam Brankley

9 – Joe Robinson, 10 – Sam Furbank

12 – Gary Stephenson, 13 – John Soanes

11 – Will Davies, 14 – Harry Jackson, 15 – James Watts

16 – Dave Brant, 17 – Henry Furbank, 18 – Ben Dinsdale

Good Luck to ALL