INJURY-RAVAGED York RI RUFC were just too depleted to hold off a West Leeds side who triumphed 36-22 at the Railway Ground in Yorkshire Three.
Key injuries to fly-half Matthew Yates and the unavailability of front-row Nathan Ashman conspired to give RI too much to do to beat a well organised and expansive Leeds side.
That it was RI who scored first was testament to their battling qualities. With Murray Lloyd clearly not comfortable at fly-half, it was a surprise when RI took the lead on 16 minutes.
A piece of individual brilliance from flanker Garret Mallon saw him break through a host of tackles - touching down a surging run.
Lloyd hit the conversion and RI had surprisingly found themselves ahead.
They defended hard, but their try woke West Leeds up and they reduced the deficit with a score of their own after 23 minutes.
Spreading the ball wide, West Leeds had an overlap on the right-hand side. The passes were accurate, full-back Richard Merritt running in unopposed at the right corner.
RI still led 7-5 following a missed conversion but, on the stroke of half-time, they fell behind and were never to recover.
A driving maul took the ball up to RI's 22, before a quick interchange of passes again saw the ball spread to the right, where winger Sam Williams scored a fantastic try. Dave Breakwell hit the conversion and West Leeds had a 12-7 half-time advantage.
Six minutes into the second half, West Leeds extended their lead - taking advantage of another huge overlap left by the RI defence.
When West Leeds changed direction, RI seemed powerless to resist and Williams scored his second try.
A horrible injury to RI No 8 Jon Alexander and a yellow card for prop Alec Webster put RI under more pressure but they responded by playing some of their best rugby of the match and reduced the deficit to 17-10 with a penalty by Lloyd.
But it was his sloppy pass, deep in RI territory which effectively finished the match on 75 minutes. The ball was picked up by West Leeds' centre Phil Thompson who was touched by no-one before grounding under the posts.
Alexander's injury meant a total of 16 minutes of injury time was played - enough to see another four tries.
RI gave themselves some hope when Fatai Oketete scored, but West Leeds' were controlling things and scores from Chris Taylor and a good break from winger Shaun Thomas put the result beyond doubt.
Right on full-time, RI showed their fighting spirit when the pack drove through from a lineout for a try but that was nothing but consolation for a team which had battled hard but was soundly beaten.
Updated: 11:05 Monday, February 07, 2005
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