A poor first half performance was the key to York RI's 36-22 Yorkshire Three defeat at Thornensians.

Although RI went ahead in the fifth minute with a Matthew Yates penalty the rest of the half saw dropped passes and missed tackles giving Thornensians' speedy backs space to score three tries, one of which was converted, to race into a 17-3 lead.

RI lost Stuart Watson with the recurrence of a shoulder injury, but with John Alexander to the fore they began to get to grips with the game and were starting to make inroads when the first half ended.

Thornensians scored only four minutes after the restart and to go 22-3 ahead.

But RI stuck to their guns and were rewarded with two tries in the space of ten minutes.

Mike Duggan crashed over from a rolling maul and then man of the match Alexander broke through from a tap penalty. Yates converted both tries.

Both sides ran the ball at every opportunity and Thornensians extended their lead with a try in the corner converted by fly half Norris.

RI hit back almost immediately when Tim Nash broke through the cover to make the score 29-22.

With five minutes to go RI were attacking when a pass was intercepted and Thornensians' centre scored under the posts.

Updated: 11:53 Monday, February 23, 2004