Yarnbury in dreamland after taking underdog status in their stride to win final
YARNBURY Rugby Football Club were formed in 1872 but it is doubtful whether they have had many better days in their 153-year history than last Saturday.
They faced North Ribblesdale in the final of the Yorkshire Shield at the John Charles Stadium in South Leeds and were massive underdogs.
Ribb had won 41 of their previous 44 matches in either Counties Two or Counties One Yorkshire, being promoted for the past two seasons.
Yarnbury, although they had also been promoted to Counties One Yorkshire for 2025-26, will still be a division below them next season.
If you had landed from Mars, however, and didn't know which blue-shirted teams were which you would have been forgiven for guessing wrongly.
Yarnbury were leading 20-0 after 23 minutes and ended up winning 44-21 to take the Shield for the first time.
They scored their opening try in the second minute via winger Josh Bateson after a multiple-phase effort with Ribb virtual passengers.
Full back Max Kennedy then got Yarnbury's second try in the sixth minute, and fly half Dan Pound added two penalties to his two conversions to leave the Leeds club in dreamland.
Ribb hit back with tries by Hennie Van Rensburg and Alex Dew, both converted by Freddie Spensley to make it 20-14, but there was no stopping Yarnbury in the second half either.
Former Old Grovian Kennedy added two more tries to complete his hat-trick, his third being a gift from a loose offload, Pound again converting both.
Although Ribb bagged a third try through full back Ben Coultherd, converted by Spensley, Yarnbury added another try from hooker Tom Whitfield, Pound landing a conversion and a penalty to give himself a personal haul of 19 points.
Yarnbury's head coach Steve Lee said: 'I know that they had four or five players out, including their player-coach Tom Davidson, and we were missing one or two, but I thought beforehand that we probably had a five per cent chance of winning that final.
'But it was more of a case of me saying to our lads 'Look we need to turn up, we need to start well and we need to create a bit of pressure'.
'They haven't played for six weeks like us so that was a bit of a leveller, but we had a a strong 22 for the final.
'The plan was to start well and we had a strong bench to bring on with 20 minutes to go and do some damage.
'As it happens we took control of the game, apart from a 15-20 minute spell, and were well worthy of our win.
'I looked at my watch and it said 5min 45sec and we had two tries on the board, which was a perfect start, but you know that they are going to get some territory and possession at some point.
'We responded well in the second half and took control in the last 10 or 15 minutes.
'We looked after the ball well, offloaded well and we asked questions early on, but the set-piece was also solid as we feared we might struggle at scrum time, and we have speed in the backs in what was a complete team performance.
'Now we can start to think about and plan for next season, which was parked until after this final.
Lee added: 'We have lost in three Shield finals before and I was captain in two of them but this really makes up for it and everyone deserves a massive pat on the back,'
And a good day for the Wharfe Valley area area was added to by Old Otliensians defeating Wheatley Hills 49-19 in the Yorkshire Silver Trophy final, which was played immediately before the Shield final.
Tries for Otliensians, who have also been promoted from Counties Three Yorkshire, came from centre Jake Bentley, Isaac Gillson and Jay Walsh in the first half and Will Howarth (2), Luke Cowdell and Connor Bateman in the second half, with vice-captain Bentley adding all of the conversions.
Otliensians coach Andy Hinchliffe said: 'It was a really tough game between two excellent sides, and this rounds off a really good season for the lads.
'They have performed remarkably well all season to win the league, winning the Papa John's at Twickenham last weekend and now this so this is a nice treble.
'I said before this match and at half-time that the game was going to come down to patience and sticking to the plans, and we have mental strength in buckets.
'It helped that we had the wind in the second half and in the back of my mind I thought that we might have the edge in fitness as well.'
Hinchliffe added: 'We have a fantastic mix of talent coming through from last year's colts and they are benefiting from the older players such as Luke Exley, Luke Cowdell and Ollie Eaves.
'I have not come across such a great team spirit since my uni days, but we will be in a tough league next season.
'Counties Two Yorkshire is where we think we should be but we have probably got there a season earlier than we thought we would but I have every confidence that we will do well.
'Top half would be nice and there are a lot of derbies (Baildon, Bradford & Bingley, Bramley Phoenix, Halifax Vandals, Roundhegians, Huddersfield Laund Hill, Ossett, Halifax), which is fantastic.'
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