POCKLINGTON were left in a state of disbelief that they had lost 10-8 to Ripon in a Yorkshire Two game that they dominated for long periods.

Ripon had the better of the first quarter of an hour, scored one try and should have had another. But thereafter Pocklington piled on the pressure only to fail to turn their control into points due to a combination of near misses, wrong options and two kicks coming back off the woodwork.

Ripon's early tactics were to hoist the high ball and use their bigger forwards and they got an early try from a line out catch and drive through prop Peter Fletcher, converted from the touchline by Jason Bell.

And Ripon should have increased their lead when they again opened Pocklington up only to drop the ball with the line begging.

Pocklington then broke out of their half to go on to the attack and stay there for the rest of the half. Twice they were held on the line, they fired a penalty wide and then saw another hit the post and come out after Ripon had surprisingly been allowed to charge it.

Pocklington continued to batter at the Ripon line and when they were awarded a penalty in the last minute of the first half, Kevin Bowling shaped to kick for goal but then took a quick tap to send centre Guy Wilson sliding over wide out.

Bowling again saw a kick come back off the post with his conversion attempt.

It was a similar story at the start of the second half as Pocklington continued to put Ripon under siege.

When the two sides had met at Ripon in November, the Ripon pack had controlled the game. But this time Ripon struggled for possession with Pocklington doing particularly well in the line out where they stole a dozen opposition throws.

However, Pocklington failed to finish with the nearest they came to a try when flanker Steve Wilcock powered over but was prevented from touching down.

Pocklington also chose a series of wrong options and when they again tried to run a penalty from in front of the posts, this time they made no headway.

Ripon made a rare sortie upfield and Bell thumped over a long range penalty into the wind, to increase their lead.

Back came Pocklington and Bowling closed the gap to two points once more with a penalty, but though Pocklington continued to attack, came close on half a dozen occasions and saw two drop goals fail to find the target they somehow were unable to get the vital score.

Updated: 12:49 Monday, January 27, 2003