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Photos: Emilien Tortel
York gave their promotion ambitions a huge boost after Hugh Draycott’s last-minute try sealed victory over Bishop Burton in a pulsating encounter.
Trailing 25-24 with moments left, York appeared for all the world to have suffered a significant setback before the hooker’s vital contribution propelled his side to a magnificent 10th league triumph.
The result means York are strong favourites to finish top of the division, and require one win from their remaining two league games to round off an excellent season.
Just like last week, York were far from their best but had enough quality in their ranks to strike when it really mattered. Today, they were facing the only team to have beaten them in the league so far in the shape of Bishop Burton, who claimed a surprise 33-14 victory back in October.
York seemed hungry for revenge straight from kick-off, and scored a try in the first minute of play. Will Sharp flew over the line from Shivington-Jones’ pass as Bishop Burton were outnumbered on the left wing, but the conversion was off target.
York continued to dominate the early stages, wearing down their opponents who struggled to find any meaningful possession and were camped inside their own half.
However, in a rare attack, Bishop Burton forced York into conceding a penalty and the away side were back in it at 5-3.
Handling errors began to creep into York’s play at key moments, preventing the home side establishing a larger advantage which their attacking play merited.
Bishop Burton punished these mistakes with a try of their own after 20 minutes. The huge number-8 found an inexplicable gap in the York defence and charged through, touching down under the posts to allow for an easy conversion to make the score 10-5.
York were rocked by the try, and struggled to regain their earlier control with numerous missed tackles creating some nervous moments in defence.
A lack of discipline at breakdowns didn’t help either, and Bishop Burton converted one of their penalty kicks to establish a 13-5 lead.
York woke up in what was the last action of the first half, as Adam Gaskell cleverly offloaded to Draycott from a line-out, and the eventual match winner tumbled over to bring York back into contention at 13-10 behind.
Despite a furious half-time talk from the coach, York’s problems in defence persisted into the second period.
A penalty under the posts, followed by a second try from the number-8 after a long period of pressure, opened up an almost inconceivable 8-point advantage for Bishop Burton.
Will Peters had a chance to reduce the arrears with a penalty but screwed his effort wide, but before long the lead was cut to just one point.
The subdued Conan Osborn finally sparked into life, crashing over the line as York threw everything at their opponents, and Peters converted.
But the defensive shambles was still not over, as Will Ward missed his tackle on the imperious number-8, who completed a hat-trick of tries. The conversion left York trailing 25-17 with 15 minutes to go.
Tom Chadwick was brought on in an attempt to restore some order, and the move had its desired effect.
York raised their intensity and a well-worked move allowed Sharp to score his second of the match as Bishop Burton completely switched off. Once again, York were within one point of the lead.
With five minutes left, York came within inches of taking the lead after Chadwick’s penalty agonisingly hit the post, but the fireworks was saved until even later.
Draycott collected the ball from Ward’s offload and smashed his way to the line, and despite being held up just short, he flung out a big paw to hand the decisive points to York.
Draycott was mobbed by his ecstatic teammates at the final whistle, and the celebrations demonstrated to all the importance of today’s result.
York will travel to second-placed Liverpool on Sunday, before facing Sheffield on 22 Acres the following Wednesday.
Cheers.