Pocklington were never in contention as they went down 39-3 in their Yorkshire Two match at Beverley.

They looked rusty, having not played for two weeks, whereas their hosts had managed to keep playing despite the weather. And Beverley went straight on to the attack to take the lead with a third-minute penalty.

Though they struggled for possession in other phases, Pocklington's line-out showed up well but ironically when they tried to spread the ball wide along their backs after winning clean take, they only succeeded in dropping the pass and letting Beverley hack through for a gift score.

Beverley were quicker to the breakdown to turn over the majority of Pocklington's loose ball, while Pocklington also contributed to their own downfall by kicking possession back to the home side.

And when Pocklington once again failed to find touch with a kick, Beverley ran the ball back to set up the position for a push over try and added the conversion and a penalty for an 18-point lead.

Pocklington then took the initiative for the last ten minutes of the first half, but they were restricted to a single penalty from two attempts by full-back Mark Taylor.

Pocklington briefly had the advantage in the second period but though they made some promising individual runs they again suffered by kicking the ball down their opponents throats.

In contrast, Beverley's tactical kicking gave them some good attacking positions and kept Pocklington deep in their own territory.

Beverley then handed the ball to their heavyweight forwards and their 'battering-ram' tactics eventually paid off as the home side crashed over for two scores.

Pocklington kept trying to throw the ball about and ran a series of penalties but the nearest they came was when replacement Ben Rayner was forced into touch just short.

Beverley had the final word when they broke out of defence deep into injury time and kept the ball alive on a 70-yard move for the final try.

Updated: 10:38 Monday, January 13, 2003