Ben Hepworth scored a hat-trick of tries as York RUFC under-13s, who have only lost twice all season, hammered Yorkshire Cup semi-finalists Pocklington 41-7.

York travelled expecting a difficult encounter, but a second-half performance of open and aggressive rugby ensured the emphatic win after they had led only 12-7 at the break.

All the team played well in by far their best performance of the season, with further tries coming from Toby Spark (2), Jack Bass and David Phillips. Spark, Tom Brown and Arran Thompson added conversions.

York U9s enjoyed a hard-fought win over Pock before Christmas and followed up with a 4 tries to 0 win.

Pock put up a good challenge but Dan Tai and William Pepper tackled well for York, while Campbell Thomson, Alex Machen and Oliver Inman were tremendous up front, Thomson being rewarded with two short-range tries.

Half-backs Dylan George and Will Scholey passed well, while Charlie Elliot showed a return to form with an angled run to score in the corner and by freeing Arron Johnson at speed to score the fourth try.

York U8s had enough players to play two games against Pocklington.

Thomas Bullough scored a hat-trick for the first squad but could not prevent a 6-4 loss to Pocklington, while Jake Stepehenson went one better for the second squad with four tries in a 8-5 win.

The first game was bravely fought, and saw Martin Sowerby also cross for an inexperienced York squad.

The second York squad put up a fine display with some excellent team awareness. Other tries came from Cameron Atkinson, Zak Johnson, Callum Simpson and Ben Whitmore.

Updated: 09:46 Thursday, February 17, 2005