Scarborough RUFC start their pre-season with 17-0 loss at Bridlington RUFC

It was a fairly even contest in the early exchanges but Scarborough took full control of the set-piece, writes Charlie Hopper.

The hosts opened the scoring inside the first 20 minutes with a well taken try in the corner despite the best efforts of Jake Lyon who tried to tackle the scorer in to touch.

Both sides continued to battle hard in the middle of the park but ill-discipline and handling errors halted any momentum, Brid holding a slender 5-0 lead going into the first break.

Matty Jones’ side thought they’d scored in the corner through James Long, straight after the break, but the referee had pulled Scarborough back for incorrectly tapping the ball at the penalty.

Jones rung the changes midway through the second period as he looked for a way through.

With the second-half being played firmly in the Bridlington half, Scarborough looked to have scored again but the overlap saw the winger spill the ball as he was about to run in.

The final third got underway and Bridlington stretched their lead to 10-0.

Connor Ward’s clearance kick was charged down and the Brid player scrambled on the ball to score in the corner.

Will Vasey was then shown a yellow card for preventing the ball from coming out of the ruck.

From the resulting scrum, Brid scored their third try of game close to the posts with Stanyon kicking his first conversion of the match to round off a 17-0 win for the home side.

Scarborough are back in pre-season action on Friday night, welcoming Wetherby to Silver Royd, 7pm kick-off.

Jones’ team will kick off their league season at Dronfield on Saturday September 2, opening their home campaign against Malton & Norton at Silver Royd a week later.

The Vikings start their season on September 9, at home to their Malton counterparts, with the Danesmen also at home to Malton.

The Valkyries begin their season at home to Sandal on Sunday September 17.