Doncaster Phoenix 26 Ilkley 24

THE Ilkley side had a startlingly unfamiliar look for their Yorkshire Cup first round clash at Doncaster Phoenix.

A brand-new second-row partnership of Kieron Dannat and Martyn Mitchell was complemented by other new faces in the backs – Charles Ramsey at stand off, Chris Gemmell partnering Elliot Morgan in the centre and Luke Freer playing on the wing.

With another three newcomers on the bench and with another half-dozen still on holiday, the Dalesmen are certainly not lacking personnel as the new National |League Three North season approaches.

It is perhaps an unfortunate consequence of league rugby that this once prestigious competition has been relegated to a bit-part of the season.

An indifferent kick-off resulted in the hosts’ gaining possession and retaining it pretty well until their lively scrum-half darted over for the first score of the day. The successful conversion made it 7-0.

Phoenix were clearly fired up for this and despite a better kick-off by Ramsey, Ilkley were immediately under pressure again. Losing a line-out didn’t help matters, but the defence held firm and a good take and run from Ben Magee set up the chance for new skipper Joe Rowntree to open his side's account which he did with aplomb.

An attempted offload in the tackle by Ilkley saw the ball hit the deck and the onrushing Phoenix defence capitalised immediately, some good interplay seeing their left wing score close enough for the conversion to be a formality.

At 14-3 down, Ilkley then started to boss the scrums to the extent that Phoenix changed their front row. The first of a good few long penalty kicks by Gemmell pinned Phoenix down in their own 22 and despite a penalty miss by Rowntree, eventually the Ilkley line-out worked well.

Dannat set up an impressive catch and drive which saw veteran Jon Hutchinson claim the try which Rowntree converted.

Ilkley continued to press and after Phoenix had been reduced to 14 men when one of their forwards was yellow carded for illegally halting a catch and drive, the visitors for a scrum.

Pat Power broke to the left, and was held up a metre out, but Dannat was on hand though to pick up and dot down wide on the left. Rowntree’s magnificent kick gave Ilkley a 17-14 half-time lead.

As the rain started to come down, handling errors from both side appeared and when Dannat went off injured, Ilkley’s pack seemed to lose their dominance and Phoenix capitalised by retaking the lead with a try.

The Dalesmen responded with a moment of pure class as centre Morgan held on to a long clearance kick and then outpaced the defence over 60 metres to score. Rowntree’s kick made it 24-19.

This was exciting stuff and the match was hanging in the balance. From the kick-off, Phoenix were straight back at llkley, their impressive No.8 touching down. The relatively difficult conversion went over and it was 26-24 with ten minutes to go.

On came the remaining replacements and it was game on. Rowntree had a great chance to win the game for Ilkley when they were awarded

The scrum-half’s usual thunderous boot connected well, but after what seemed an eternity to the Ilkley faithful, the touch-judges’ flags stayed down and that was it. No pockets picked and a disappointing end to a good match.