Alnwick Win Over Ilkley

With fourth place in the League nailed on, Ilkley travelled up to England’s northernmost rugby club with nothing to play for but pride. Their hosts on the other hand were anxious to secure second place in order to have home advantage in the forthcoming play-offs, which will be against Harrogate, whose demolition of Sandal means they will finish third.

There were various changes in the Ilkley side , which could not be described as being at full strength, but they made a lively start and looked good with ball in hand. However, getting ball in hand became increasingly more difficult, as Alnwick’s lean and mean pack slowly throttled their opponents as the game wore on.

Alnwick kicked off with the stiff breeze at their backs and immediately put pressure on the Ilkley defence, but a Charles Morgan 50.22 saved the day. Unfortunately, possession was lost at the resultant line-out and Alnwick countered, earning a penalty when Ilkley were adjudged to have collapsed a scrum. The home pack then took control, releasing centre Johnny McNichol to score close enough to the posts to make James Blackett’s kick a formality : 7-0 after 8 minutes of play.

Ilkley were not enjoying some of the refereeing decisions, though verbalising their irritation cost them a further 10 metres. Fortunately, the Alnwick penalty was kicked dead and Ilkley won their scrum. Charles Morgan made a superb break, supported well by brother Blake, to get within 5 meters of the Alnwick line. 

A penalty was run and after a couple of well-controlled phases, Ben Magee stormed over for Ilkley’s first score, ably converted by Charles Morgan on 15 minutes.

Now with their tales up, a mazy run by Magee was again supported by Blake Morgan and Ilkley found themselves back in the Alnwick 22, but a knock on gave the advantage back to Alnwick. Then it was the hosts turn to knock on just outside the Ilkley 22 and with the referee playing a good advantage, the ball was spun out right. Jack Hamilton and Willem Johnson both making good ground before Blake Morgan took the scoring pass to go over for a really spectacular try, which even the Alnwick support applauded. Brother Charles kicked the goal and Ilkley were ahead, by 14 points to 7.

In similar fashion to the Heath game though, the lead was not to last long and with some uncharacteristic poor tacking, Alnwick wing Mike O’Brien finished a simple backs’ move, Blackett adding the extras to level the scores as the game entered its second quarter and Blake Morgan limped off to be replaced by Ed Brown.

The rest of the half saw most of the play in the Alnwick half, as Ilkley battered away at a strong defence and it was against the run of that play when Alnwick broke out. Captain Callum Burn made good ground before kicking ahead for his outside backs to chase. The ball bounced kindly for McNichol and over he went for his second try, converted again by Blackett with five minutes to go to half-time.

Those five minutes belonged to Ilkley, but despite being awarded a string of penalties in front of the posts, all executed by a tap and go, the Alnwick defence held firm and the home side led by 21 points to 14 as the whistle went.

The wind hadn’t subsided any as the teams took to the pitch for the second half and Charles Morgan took full advantage, but each Ilkley attack was thwarted by a string of errors, both forced and unforced and ominously, they were giving away a lot of penalties at set scrums, as the Alnwick pack started to turn the screw.

Eventually Ilkley were penalised under their posts and Alnwick unsurprisingly opted for the scrum. Out flashed the ball to the left and O’Brien claimed his second try of the day right in the corner. A brilliant conversion by Blackett and it was 14-28.

Ilkley were now really under the cosh and only some truly epic defence prevented further scores from their hosts, until yet another scum penalty was converted by Blackett to put the game beyond Ilkley’s reach.

However, in last ten minutes, Ilkley’s backs began to get some ball and it was Alnwick’s turn to feel some heat, but back came those errors - a couple of forward passes, a couple of knock-ons - and nothing to show for some considerable effort, both in attack and defence.

There was just time for Alnwick to butcher a scoring chance by knocking on with the line at their mercy and the game finished with a bonus point win for Alnwick by 31 points to 14, Ilkley having performed well in the second half, despite being under immense pressure.

After the break for Easter, Ilkley’s last match is at York and this promises to be a nail-biter as Ilkley hope to complete their season with another double and with York desperately needing a win to avoid getting tangled up with the relegation play-offs. The Dalesmen were comfortable victors back in early September and with York third from bottom, the form book would suggest an Ilkley win is very much on the cards, but there is little doubt that York will not be paying any attention to form and Ilkley can expect a stern test of their resolve.