York RUFC celebrate their new stand with Blaydon victory

The match marked a special occasion off the field, with the club unveiling their new Wood Butler stand, opened by Richard Wood and James Butler in memory of their fathers, who had been faithful servants to the club.

But on it, the fixture proved a hard-fought affair by two good sides - despite the scorching weather - York’s forward power in the end proving decisive to seal victory.

Late changes to the home line-up saw ex-York and England Colt Henry Du Boulay starting at 8 in place of Shane Goulding who had failed a late fitness test, whilst Willem Enslin and Matt Avison were named on the bench.

Possession and territory were even in the opening ten minutes as each side probed the other, both in the forwards and the three quarters, displaying good skills, power and pace only to be met by solid tackling.

Simpson and Du Boulay were prominent in the early exchanges with the former’s groundwork winning ball regularly.

York‘s power up front through a dominant scrum and superb counter rucking put Blaydon under increasing pressure and provided a great platform for Toby Atkin and Harry Shackleton to dictate where the game was to be played, and it wasn’t long before they nudged themselves in front.

Shackleton’s 50/22m kick set up a York lineout five metres out, which the hosts recycled, taking the game towards the posts.

A strong running Lewi Jackson then slipped a neat pass to Shackleton who went under the posts, the fly-half converting his try to give the hosts a 7-0 lead.

Blaydon, though, pulled level shortly after, Clarkson converting after a good jinking break by Cooney.

The second quarter saw increasing pressure from York as they looked to restore their advantage, but they were forced into errors.

Cooney dropped the ball at the vital moment after an interception, and it was York who found themselves back in front when the lively Atkin sent Will Fordy across, Shackleton’s conversion seeing the hosts lead 14-7 at the break.

However, Blaydon fought their way straight back into the game after York had pushed their scrum backwards on the 22m line, as Slow did not live up to his name after slicing through the home defence from full-back and underneath the posts.

Another successful conversion levelled the scores, before Blaydon turned the game on its head to take the score to 21-14.

York responded with wave after wave of attack, stretching the Blaydon defence from one side to the other, but it remained unbroken.

Controversy then ensued as the referee issued a yellow card to former Worcester Warriors second row Turnbull for collapsing the maul, and then awarded a penalty rather than a penalty try.

York elected to take a scrum and Atkin picked his way through to the line with a typical high-energy jinking run from the base, Shackleton again making the honours even.

Despite Blaydon’s stubbornness and tenacity to keep threatening to exploit York’s mistakes, the pressure from York resulted in three more second half tries by Jackson, Shackleton and Du Boulay against a penalty for Blaydon to seal the game and a try bonus point for York.

The pick of these was a superb individual effort by Shackleton, the fly-half stepping left, looking right and then stepping left again before touching down, the Blaydon defenders spinning on the spots that they had been fixed to in his wake.