POCKLINGTON received a harsh introduction to life in the North Premier League when they went down 48-3 at Wirral.

The long trip to Merseyside included being stuck in a motorway traffic jam, and Pock's ill fortune continued when the game got underway.

The visitors held their own in the opening exchanges with some solid forward play.

But the first of three yellow cards to stand-in skipper Dave Birch saw them go a man down, then scrum half James Thompson and flanker Owen Jackson both departed with injuries.

Lively Wirral took full advantage to land two tries in quick succession, putting them 17-0 up at the interval.

Pocklington had their best spell at the start of the second half, Jonty Peters pulling three points back with a penalty. Teenage debutant Toby Stephenson made a notable impression off the bench and his back row colleagues Jack Holbrough and Karl Durkin put in their usual combative shift before they were also sent to the bin.

Again Wirral's slick counter-attacks stood them in good stead as they pulled clear midway through the second period, and they rubbed it in with two more tries in injury-time for a comprehensive victory.

* YORK RI coach Alex Grieve began his tenure with a 22-5 win over Stanley Rodillians in Yorkshire Four North West.

Rodillians began well until RI scrum half Brendan Aherne snapped up a loose ball and sprinted for the line to score the opening try, with Baptiste Brui adding the extras.

On 26 minutes, man of the match Ali Jordan drove over the whitewash for Brui to convert, and the kicker added a penalty two minutes later to give RI a 17-0 half-time lead.

The second half was a titanic struggle with Rods scoring an unconverted try to narrow the gap.

This stung RI into action with Adam Osguthorpe calming the home sides nerves with a well taken try as RI took the points.

* NESTLE Rowntree RUFC started their new season with a 50-21 home victory over Wetherby 2nd XV.

Trees started brightly and their French brothers, the Cames, scored the first two tries.

First, scrum half Romain went over in the corner and then full back Morgan followed suit, with fly half Jack Daniels converting the first try.

Jack Gabbatiss then crashed through to help Trees to a 17-0 lead at the break.

From the restart Wetherby roared back into it, with Dave Harrison scoring and Alex Dus converting.

However, Trees No. 8 Ian Henderson put them beyond reach with two tries from the back of the scrum.

Wetherby reduced the deficit to 31-21 with converted tries from Tom Stone and Rob Hoather.

But Trees pulled clear as Gabbatiss, Stuart Dickinson and Dan Crump sealed victory.