Aireborough put on decent showing against Old Crocs

Aireborough hosted Old Crossleyans on Saturday for the first proper hit-out of preseason. The four twenty-minute period format allowed Head Coach Si Davies a chance to experiment with combinations, and the senior squad made a decent showing at Nunroyd Park against Yorkshire 2 opposition.

Aire played up the slope for the first two 20s, kicking off and solid defence keeping Crocs confined to their own half. With the majority of the first period played in between twenty-twos, Crocs took the only real chance from a penalty kick to touch. A well-won lineout and the ball recycled over a four or five phases, their impressive number 8 wriggled free from three would-be Aire tacklers to touch down from short range.

Changes made, the second period was a scoreless affair, the best chance created by Kris Brook from a loose kick to his wing. Having left his opposite man for dead, the resulting two-on-one was bombed as the pass was a too low for the supporting Matt Trevithick to take.

HT: Aire 0-7 Crocs

The third twenty was again scoreless, but Aire dominated the final 40 minutes. With Aire's scrum going forward, the Crocs pack appeared to tire, but despite that continued to cause problems at the breakdown for Aire with a number of crucial turnovers within 10m of their line.

New signing Harley Stevenson-Cocks pressed his case for selection with some great reading of space and demonstrable wheels. On 50 mins, Harley was nearly in in the corner on the end of a first phase move off Aire's finally-firing lineout, which saw another new signing John Mackenzie break the line on the edge and put Harley in with a sniff, the touchline just clipped as he dotted down.

The pressure didn't lift on Crocs. Aire's other new signing this season,Tom Pendriss, carried strongly all afternoon, as did centres Lewis Barrett, Liam Cree and Matt Trevithick.

Matt Osborn then picked a lovely line following big carries, and put Lewis Barrett in for Aire's reply to Crocs' early try. Barrett dotted down 15m to the right of the sticks, and ultimately the result then came down to kicks at goal.

Nick Holdsworth unfortunately missed his conversion, whereas Crocs had previously taken theirs, despite a valiant charge down attempt from Kris Brook, this time managing not to injur himself in the process.

The remainder of the match saw Aire camped on Crocs' line, looking dangerous but not quite landing the winning try.

FT Aire 5 - 7 Crocs

Positive start despite the ultimate result. A strong-looking Aire squad will be whittled down for the first game of the season on 2nd September against Northallerton (BBQ and beer tent on at pitch side - don't miss it!), with only two training sessions and a preseason game vs Yarnbury on Thursday 24th, there are plenty of positive selection headaches for Si.

MOM: Si Davies commented on selecting his man of the match: "I tinkered with the formation so much. Barrett was good with some nice line breaks. Mackenzie was strong both in attack and defence. Pendriss put in some barnstorming runs and made a huge tackle too, but man of the match has to be Harley. Very composed with ball in hand and solid in defence.