NORTH Ribblesdale Stags won 39-15 at Whitby 2nds in the second round of the North Yorkshire Trophy.

Ribb, playing with the slope, started well and the early attacks were repelled by the home defence.

From a scrum, the Ribb forwards drove forward and ever-alert Frankie Brown scythed through the defence to score an unconverted try out wide.

Ribb started to dominate at the line-out and scrum, and from a scrum the ball was quickly spun out wide to centre Eddie Bradley, who scored in the corner.

Rob Capstick caught the kick-off and set off on a mazy run, only being halted by a high tackle. Ryan Hewitt took a quick tap penalty and scored the Stags' third try.

Whitby tried to stem the tide and made several forays into the Stags' half but all their attacks were contained by an excellent Ribb defence.

With half-time approaching, Ribb won a line-out deep in the Whitby half and a powerful drive by the forwards allowed space for the evergreen Simon Spensley to shimmy his way over for a converted try by the post and Ribb went into the break 22-0 up.

Whitby rang the changes at half-time and they quickly score two unconverted tries to start the second half.

Ribb regained their composure and a good clearance kick upfield was knocked on by the home full-back, and a solid scrum and series of drives saw Hewitt over for his second try.

With the home side tiring, the Ribb backs came into the game and Bradley, who was man-of-the-match, scored two further well-worked tries to complete the first hat-trick of his career.

Whitby scored their third try on the last play of the game to make the final score 39-15.

DUNCAN BROWN