AUSTRALIA may have been vanquished at Twickenham, but in Holgate at least one Kangaroo was flying the flag as Anthony Allport inspired York RI to a 37-7 triumph over Old Modernians.

The 22-year-old hooker, who once played in a Wallaby youth team with Aussie centre Matt Giteau, produced a ferocious attacking display in the loose as RI pushed their promotion hopes in Yorkshire Three.

Six tries, including four in 13 first half minutes, made it an easy win for RI, but they had to survive an early scare when centre Dave Philpott opened the scoring for Old Mods after 11 minutes. This followed an opening period which saw the York club struggling to secure decent ball and committing clumsy penalties.

When they finally got going, the result was devastating. Twenty-five minutes had passed when RI finally managed to go through the phases, but quick passing whipped the ball round Old Mods' defence and Matthew Stewart found player-coach Nick Humphries all alone to touch down in the corner.

Fly-half Michael Tyrpenou missed the conversion, but the mist that had hung over RI since their 80-12 mauling at the hands of Bradford Salem in the Yorkshire Shield had cleared.

And Old Mods' lead lasted just five more minutes as No 8 Nathan Ashman darted round the back of an RI scrum and ran in unchallenged to secure a 10-7 lead.

RI were now in complete control and Humphries quickly notched up his second try -- finishing off a move which had seen York's forwards drive forward almost 50 metres.

Allport had been at the heart of that as RI took control of the lineout and, more importantly the scrum. With Old Mods unable to secure any kind of platform, Allport then took his time to shine.

He controlled the ball like a back, as he kicked on following a cross-field centre and ran through to score the last of RI's first half tries after 38 minutes.

Eight minutes into the second-half, a Tyrpenou penalty extended RI's lead to 25-7 before a try of exquisite quality put the icing on a superb performance.

Involving nine players, half a dozen phases and controlled through the intelligent play of scrum half Tim Nash, RI's ball retention was magnificent, with passes worked across both sides of the pitch, before lock Garrett Mallon took the ball over the line.

RI's forwards to franked their superiority by driving through for another score.

Updated: 09:39 Monday, November 14, 2005