SHANE Goulding, John Dawes and Sam Forbes all bagged a brace of tries as York romped to an 81-5 win in their final RFU Intermediate Cup group clash at Gateshead.

Debutant Harry Taylor also crossed the line with Dan Coe adding his first of the campaign, while Josh Parker, Chris Fox, Toby Atkin and Luke Stockton were the others to touch down.

Dawes kicked seven conversions for the Yorkshire One leaders, with George Davies adding two more and a penalty.

The visitors once more blooded two more players from last year’s successful colts side with Taylor on the wing and Oscar Bell a substitute.

York now progress to the knock-out stages of the competition with a home tie against Bowdon on Saturday.

From the kick-off, York took the ball cleanly and played controlled rugby, keeping possession and moving Gateshead around the pitch.

On 12 minutes, Goulding then picked up from the base of a scrum and crashed over with Davies converting.

Following a successful penalty from Davies, the York backs and forwards went on to combine to put Parker over in the corner to make the score 15-0 after 25 minutes.

Gateshead, subsequently, enjoyed a period of possession and started to threaten the York line, only to knock on, allowing the Clifton Park outfit to run the full length of the pitch for Dawes to score but the conversion, on this occasion, was missed.

The final play of the half saw York put together another flowing move for Forbes to score and Davies converted to give the away team a 27-0 half-time advantage.

York emptied the bench at the interval and the second half started in similar fashion with the Yorkshire One leaders dominating possession.

Despite their superiority, York maintained shape and passed the ball well to scoring a further eight tries through Fox, Goulding, Taylor, Forbes, Coe, Atkin, Dawes and Stockton.

Dawes added seven conversions.

To their merit, Gateshead never gave up and scored a consolation try with the last play of the game.

No cards were issued in a game without niggle as Taylor made an excellent debut and Bell impressed from the bench.

There was good news for York in Yorkshire One, too, with their nearest challengers, Scarborough, losing at home to Old Rishworthians.

Boro were leapfrogged by Beverley, who won at Bradford Salem, while fellow title hopefuls Heath also won, at Old Brodleians.

At the other end, Selby boosted their hopes of escaping the drop with a 28-18 win over North Ribblesdale, although fellow strugglers Wheatley Hills also enjoyed a shock win at Keighley.

In the Yorkshire Four Shield, meanwhile, York RI lost 32-17 at table-toppers Bramley Phoenix.