A MAGNIFICENT performance by the pack spurred York RI to an 8-7 victory in their Yorkshire Three game at Skipton.

RI travelled to play this fixture postponed from a week ago with a much changed side to the one announced the previous week.

Holidays and unavailability meant that six changes had to be made to the pack alone.

However, RI gave a great battling performance and deserved to win.

A sticky pitch was always going to hinder flowing rugby, but to the credit of both teams they did attempt to throw the ball about.

Skipton took the lead after ten minutes when after a spell of attacking play they managed to get left winger Jones in at the corner.

The try was converted to give the home side a 7-0 lead. As the half wore on RI's pack managed to gain a stranglehold on their opponents and Skipton's challenge started to wane. A penalty by Matthew Yates made the half time score 7-3.

RI started the second half well. Matthew Yates's tactical kicking kept the home side on the backfoot and more than once his chip over the defence had Skipton in a panic.

From one of these, RI took the lead. Yates caught his own chip-kick, drew the winger and fed the ball to Tyrpenou, who passed to Mark Musgrave to stroll in at the corner.

After the yellow carding of Tom Heslop, RI came unde pressure but withstood everything the home side threw at them to score a great win.

Updated: 10:09 Monday, November 28, 2005