A STORMING second half comeback was just too little for York Railway Institute in their Yorkshire Three trip to Roundhegians.

The RI ranks trailed 22-0 at one point, but bounced back to lose 22-21.

With Li, Yates, Thomas and Heslop all unavailable, RI started slowly and soon found themselves adrift as the big Roundhegians pack took control. A penalty and a converted try put the home side in front after only ten minutes.

RI were finding it difficult to win any decent ball and although Akulai Borisi, Tim Nash and Ben Hobson started to break through the home defence the moves petered out.

Two more tries, one converted, gave Roundhegians a 22-0 lead before good work from Hardman and Mallon drove RI deep into Roundhegians territory. From a ruck J P Hogan darted in for Hobson to convert for a half-time score 22-7.

In the second half RI started to believe and despite some dubious refereeing decisions reduced the arrears with a sparkling try by Borisi who ghosted past three defenders before scoring under the posts. Again Hobson added the conversion.

With ten minutes to go a break by Robin Grice took him to within feet of the home line and as he was tackled the ball was picked up by Josh Sowray who crashed over the line. Hobson's conversion made the score 22-21.

From that point it was all RI. However, try as they might, they could not get the final score.

Updated: 11:05 Monday, September 26, 2005