York RUFC battled hard in a competitive and combative encounter that was a treat to watch, but couldn't convert their chances to take a game they should have won, against a resurgent Heath side eventually losing by 20 points to 10.

Heath have had an uncharacteristic start to their season, winning only two of their five league starts, explained by an array of injuries incurred from round 1 of this year's league campaign.

York themselves have their own availability issues. The injury last week to the recently returned Atkinson meant reshuffling the back line, which must be proving frustrating for the coaching staff with consistency of selection proving elusive.

Shackleton opened the scoring with a penalty following a short period of sustained pressure from York to put them briefly in the lead with a penalty, but Heath were quick to respond.

Strong running down the left by the formidable Boussaada, managing to find a half gap in the defensive line and find himself in space. Making good ground before slipping the ball inside to Keighley-Payne, who crossed to the left of the posts. Johnson converted. 7-3.

The Heath scrum was a dominant feature last year and whilst York were dealing with it this time around it was a key battle ground in the game. Johnson extended Heath’s lead when York were penalised for standing up in the scrum on the 10m line, Johnson slotting the penalty to extend Heath’s lead to seven points. 10-3.

Shackleton found his dancing shoes to put them on the back foot and create attacking momentum before feeding Dent on a nice line, who crashed over under the posts for the try. Shackleton converted to tie the game 10-10.

The final assault of the half on the York line was launched by Heath kicking into the York goal area. Rae collected, touched down and took a quick goal line drop out to himself.

The referee deemed him to have knocked on and awarded a scrum to Heath 5m out. A tremendous defensive effort ensued with York forcing a knock on that brought the half time whistle as the Heath pack tried to maul the ball over the line. 10-10.

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In the second-half, York’s presentation of second phase ball was much cleaner than of late allowing Atkin to increase the tempo of the game which was eagerly contributed to by strong running from forwards and backs.

Heath received a yellow card but York couldn't breach the defence of the 14-men, who defended valiantly, particularly Harriott-Brown who made a crunching tackle on the charging Dent who was cutting a great line off Shackleton.

Heath managed to relieve the pressure and took the game briefly back into the York half where Johnson kept the score board ticking over to put Heath into a 13-10 lead.

As soon as Moore had returned from his spell in the sin bin, another Heath forward took his place for collapsing the maul.

The game was all York at this point, the pack retaining phase ball to sustain the pressure from forwards running mainly in the number ten channel.

A strong drive up the left-hand side concentrated the Heath defence before the ball was released to the right. The passing was laboured but managed to find Rae who raced for the corner against the covering defender Haynes. Rae couldn't quite make the line and was taken into touch at the corner flag.

Another attack by York saw the ball drift too far in front of Fordy who tried to salvage the situation by getting boot to it, pushing it on the ground behind the oncoming centres.

It was a cruel stroke of luck that saw the ball pop up neatly into the hands of the oncoming Haynes who ran 75m to the line to score under the posts for a converted try that was to conclude the scoring 20 -10.

The try, very much against the run of play, took the wind out of the York sails who subsequently suffered a couple of yellow cards late in the second-half.