Aire win opener against Northallerton

The list of people I feel sorry for is quite small; the guy who lost the game of rock-paper-scissors and had to sit on the space rocket as Armstrong and Aldrin made history (what was his name?) is on the list, as is Julie from my office - always the bridesmaid and never the bride (although there is a reason for that). After yesterday's game I'm also adding to the list the poor lass who will have to clean our sodden and dirty kit and Aireborough's wingers who stood for 80 minutes in the wind and rain and watched the two sets of forwards arm wrestle out a hard fought victory for Aireborough.

Aireborough lost both games against Northallerton last season and talk of revenge filled the home dressing room during the pre-match team talk. A 5-0 defeat in a game ruined by a gale force wind at their place was disappointing but it was the 12-10 defeat at Nunroyd toward the back-end of the season that really hurt and required redressing.

Aireborough started the game strongly, with Richard Holmes receiving the kick off and taking it into the Northallerton pack – the ball was recycled and Nick Holdsworth, setting a new record for the shortest retirement in Aire history, making good yards from the clearing kick. The resulting lineout was won by Northallerton and the arm wrestle began as Northallerton stuck to tradition and stuck the ball up their jumpers and tried to maul the smaller Aireborough pack into submission.

The Aireborough pack, however, held their own for the majority of the first half and the strong defence pressurised Northallerton into mistakes and indiscipline which allowed Holdsworth to convert two of his three penalty attempts. The two converted penalties sandwiched a Northallerton try which was a catch-and-drive from a 5 metre lineout following the harsh award of a penalty against fly-half Ryan Sample for a smashing tackle in midfield which the referee adjudged to be a no-arms tackle.

HT: Aireborough 6 v Northallerton 5

The message from Matt at half time was very clear – get the ball into the corner and if Northallerton can go 80 metres, up the hill,
through us then fair play to them. As it turns out, they couldn’t – but it took Aireborough 25 minutes to get the ball into the corner and apply sustained pressure which eventually choked the life out of a labouring Northallerton pack.

Prior to that, Aireborough had shown great defence for the first 20 minutes of the second half as Northallerton applied relentless pressure to the Aire line but were unable to cross the line for a second try. Northallerton began to tire and Aire began pushing them back down the hill, the forwards working hard to recycle ball and Sample and Holdsworth finding space with tactical kicks which were well chased and defended.

Holdsworth slotted another penalty with 15 minutes to go following Northallerton indiscipline and the last 10 minutes were spent deep in the Northallerton 22 as Aire pushed for the try that would finish the match off. The try didn’t come despite a clear claim for a penalty try following numerous strong scrums from Aire in the red zone and Tom Holdsworth can consider himself unlucky to have had his try disallowed following a quickly taken penalty which was called back by the referee.

FT: Aireborough 9 v Northallerton 5

Considering Aireborough are historically slow starters, Aireborough were without a win in September since 2014 and had only one won of their previous 10 September matches, and given the poor weather conditions getting the win was the main result from this match.
There were plenty of positives to take from the match that the team can take forward to next week’s away fixture at Halifax, who were heavily beaten 54-14 by newly promoted Wensleydale, and there are some further things to work on midweek during training.

Man of the Match: Richard Holmes