Errors deepen Malton & Norton RUFC's anguish (From York Press)

Errors deepen Malton & Norton's anguish

9:56am Monday 1st October 2012 in Sport

YET again Malton and Norton RUFC let a North One East game slip from their grasp as they slid to a 19-17 reverse to visitors Morley.

The first quarter was all Malton as they pressed hard and retained possession for long periods.

However, poor handling and bad decision making with the line in sight, rather than good defence, meant that they had nothing on the scoreboard to show for their efforts.

At the core of the pressure was fly-half Chris Creber, but when he was forced to leave the fray after 27 minutes with an arm injury Malton’s play deteriorated.

Having missed a kickable penalty minutes earlier, Morley took the lead after 36 minutes when some woeful midfield tackling by Malton gave fullback Mark Cooke a clear run to the line. Fly-half Scott Hayes converted.

Setting up a maul 20 metres out from the Morley line, the home pack drove the visitors back for hooker Alex Whitaker to get the touchdown under the posts, full-back Ian Cooke converting to level.

But from the kick-off Malton again showed their fragile side. Morley regained possession and Cooke claimed his second try of the game and a 12-7 half-time lead.

Malton conceded again ten minutes in. Again poor tackling was to blame as Morley hooker James Frost strolled through. The conversion was a formality.

Poor handling of the final pass continued to let the hosts down though luck was out when a drive by the pack saw the referee rule the ball wasn’t grounded.

When Morley failed to control the ball at the rear of a scrum on their line, Malton scrum-half Dan Cattle got the first hand on the ball to claim his sides’ second try.

Now mistakes galore littered the game. Malton were still dominating possession but not showing any cutting edge.

In the final minute the forwards set up a maul and Whitaker got in for his second score. But the conversion missed to the woe of the hosts.