Heaviest defeat of the season for Dinnington

Dinnington Rugby Club’s heaviest defeat of the season, a 60-7 mauling at the hands of Driffield, dropped them to third from bottom in Yorkshire One on Saturday.

But the Lodge Lane men are still 11 points clear of the two sides below them, who lost and failed to pick up any bonus points.

This was very much a Jekyll and Hyde performance by Dinnington, who got to half time 17-7 behind but received the plaudits of the home supporters who were wondering how the visitors were not ahead, such had been their dominance of the opening 40 minutes. Dinnington were still dominant for the first 10 minutes of the second half but once Driffield found their top gear, Dinnington had no answer.

From the kick-off, Dinnington went on the attack and for the opening five minutes they had Driffield defending near their own line, but a lack of communication allowed the home side to clear.

It took Driffield until the 15th minute before they had Dinnington in difficulty, but the visitors held them up over the line.

Two minutes later, against the run of play, Driffield went ahead when they went over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Dinnington came back strongly but when the ball shot out of a scrum in the Driffield half four minutes later, it was the home side who reacted the quickest running in under the posts for a 12-0 lead.

Ten minutes before half-time the visitors were denied as they drove from a line-out but a minute later from a similar situation Will Marshall touched down and Jonny West converted.

This got Dinnington back into the game, score wise, but they switched off and Driffield started to throw the ball about.

Four minutes from the break the home side scored again, in the corner, to go into half time 17-7 ahead after a half that belong to Dinnington.

Dinnington came out for the second half still holding the initiative in territorial advantage but they gave away silly penalties taking the pressure off.

Ten minutes into the half Driffield started to press and Dinnington prevented a try by ripping the ball out of the home side’s possession as they drove a maul for the line.

The respite was short-lived as two minutes later Driffield took advantage of some tiring legs to outpace Dinnington for a converted try.

What happened in the next 25 minutes was in complete contrast to what had gone before as Driffield cut loose always seeming to have spare men in attack.

The home side ran in six more tries and Dinnington were mighty relieved to hear the final whistle.

Despite having games in hand, Dinnington are without a game on Saturday and so their next fixture is a home league game against Heath on 23rd March a game they need to get something from to ease the jitters.

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