IF there were any doubts about playing an annual fixture between York University and St John's College, then they were quickly erased at Clifton Park on Wednesday.

Passion, drama, some sublime moments of class and a grandstand finish - the match had it all, and you only had to look at the differing reactions of the players at the final whistle to see what it meant to them.

As the Uni sank to their knees, having let a 14-0 lead slip to lose 15-14 in injury time, the St John's squad were mobbed by their fellow students who had cheered them on.

It was a fascinating contest, with a classic tale of two halves.

Despite having the odd moment in the first 40, St John's lacked the cutting edge to trouble the Uni defence.

And after 11 minutes Uni winger Sam Codrington turned on the gas down the wing before slipping the ball inside for Ed Massey to score. James Kennedy added the conversion.

Worse was to come as five minutes before the break, fly-half Andy Harrison dropped his shoulder to break the first line of dence and held off two tackles before popping the scoring pass to Will Mistlebrook. Kennedy's conversion made it 14-0.

However, the second half saw the Uni forced back with St John's desperate to restore some pride.

Mark Bedworth, with a penalty three minutes after the interval, put them onto the scoreboard, only for a serious ankle injury to hooker Ben Noble to hamper their cause.

Things looked worse for the College when Brad MacDonald was caught punching in a maul and was promptly sent to the sin-bin.

Down to 14 men, St John's could have crumbled but they instead they caught Uni on the hop, with Bedworth sending Rob Bloom over in the corner. Bedworth's conversion made it 14-10 with 20 minutes to play.

However, Uni should have finished the tie, when Massey shot through a gap and towards the St John's line only to throw the ball away to the cover defence.

The miss was to prove costly as St John's, back up to the full complement, threw everything into attack. It seemed Uni might just hold on, but a minute into injury time, Bedworth drew the defence and put MacDonald through. The York RUFC second row still had 15 metres to go, but there was no stopping the 23-year-old as he crashed over.

The conversion was missed but it didn't matter as St John's survived the final few seconds to complete a memorable victory.

Updated: 09:08 Saturday, March 15, 2003