UYRUFC ensured their Roses campaign got off to a winning start at the sevens firsts overcame their red rose counterparts 12-5 in a fairly one sided affair.
The men’s rugby cub won every game of last year’s Roses and judging by this performance they could repeat that feat. They dominated in midfield, outdid Lancaster for pace and matched any red rose attack with a superb tackling display.
Despite only arriving at the ground half an hour before kick-off, York started with high intensity. An errant pass prevented captain James Faktor from taking advantage of an overlap early on, but he got his try minutes later, as he powered past two Lancaster defenders to go over in the corner and make it 5-0.
Before long the score was doubled. Gabriel Adebiyi collected his own delicate chip over the Lancaster defence and touched down. Tom Chadwick’s conversion added a further two points to make it 12-0 at half-time.
Both teams freshened their sides up at half-time, with Hugo Watson and Rishi Naidoo coming on for York, and Lancaster immediately found themselves penned deep inside their own 22.
The home side eventually managed to put some pressure on the York defence and looked to be in for a try only for Gabriel Adebiyi to deny them with a superb try saving tackle.
Ben Turner, Hugh Draycott and Rishi Naidoo were exceptional in defence and matched any Lancaster threat right until the very last, when the red rose snuck over the line in the corner in the dying seconds to round off the scoring at 12-5.
“We were a bit rushed to be honest, we only got here at 2pm and half our players have never played sevens before,” said UYRUFC Captain James Faktor. “I’m really impressed with the performance, the tackling was awesome. We had enough pace and outdid them in midfield.”