Thirsk 3 Wibsey 10

THIRSK hoped to use home advantage last Saturday to end a poor run of late in Yorkshire VI against a team who were looking to move into second position with a good win.

The visitors had the best of the opening ten minutes, playing most of the rugby in Thirsk's half as the home team again failed to start with conviction.

Wibsey kept possession with a good scrummage and strong play in the loose, keeping Thirsk inside their own half. It was obvious that neither team wanted to give the other any advantage by giving away easy points.

But with 20 minutes gone Thirsk conceded a penalty just inside their 22 metre line. Wibsey decided to run it and scored from a well rehearsed penalty move, with their second row evading two half tackles and crashing over for a try which was duly converted to give them a deserved 7-0 lead.

Thirsk replied five minutes later from another penalty, second row John Barr kicking the three points to put his side back in the game.

The home side had another chance to score ten minutes later, but Barr's penalty struck the upright and went wide.

The second half saw neither team take the upper hand, with a catalogue of handling errors and penalties given away by both sides making for a scrappy, broken game.

With both teams struggling to move the game off the halfway line, most of the second half was a stalemate.

But the game caught fire in the last ten minutes after both sides lost players to the sin-bin. Wibsey lost a player for foul play, while Thirsk's Shaun Robson saw yellow for retaliation.

This spurred Thirsk into a late rally, but they couldn't turn pressure into points as the visitors defended well. With only minutes to go, Thirsk gave away yet another penalty for offside and Wibsey kicked three points to put them 10-3 up at the final whistle.

Tomorrow, Thirsk will look to halt the slip in form at home to Garforth in the league, kick off 2.15.