Ripon RUFC fail to take their chances during defeat Leeds Corinthians RUFC

Ripon RUFC lost a game that they will feel they could have won when they visited Leeds Corinthians. Picture: Submitted

Ripon RUFC slipped down to eighth place in the Yorkshire Two standings following an away defeat at Leeds Corinthians.

The Blues created more than enough scoring opportunities to have won Saturday’s contest, however they would eventually end up on the wrong end of a 32-21 score-line.

The Mallorie Park outfit did not make the best of starts to proceedings and found themselves 7-0 down with just four minutes on the clock.

They did however take the game to their hosts straight from the resumption and looked set to register their first score of the afternoon following a line-out, only for a visiting player to drop the ball as he closed in on the try-line.

But, from the resulting scrum, the Ripon pack nudged the hosts off their own put-in and Leeming snapped up the ball to crash over the whitewash. Bray’s conversion then levelled the scores at 7–7.

Things did however start to go wrong for the Blues from this point of the first period onwards.

Corinthians’ dominant kicking game enabled them to keep Ripon pinned back inside their own half. And with the Blues failing to make any consistent ground and relieve the pressure, Leeds added three tries which took the half-time score-line to a flattering 24–7.

With a stiffening breeze at their backs after the interval, Ripon began the second period strongly, but against the run of play, Corinthians touched down for the fifth time to open up a 29-7 lead.

Undeterred, the visitors pressed hard for a way back into the contest, Leeming scoring his second try in the 62nd minute following another break from a scrum.

Bray added the conversion to narrow the gap to 29-14 and the Blues kept on coming.

Ripon were dominating at the set-piece and, on 70 minutes, a succession of offences by the Leeds forwards at a five-metre scrum saw the away team awarded a penalty try which made it 29-21.

Having created and wasted a number of clear scoring opportunities during the second half, the Blues smelt blood and threw everything they had at Corinthians in the final stages.

However, a rare foray into visiting territory did result in Leeds edging further clear courtesy of a long-range penalty, and they managed to see the game out with their 32-21 advantage intact.