NEW Earswick All Blacks ARLC celebrated their switch to the Yorkshire Men’s League with a 16-13 victory over York Acorn ‘A’ in the Forty20 Cup.

The two clubs will meet again in division one this season after Acorn were relegated and the All Blacks quit the winter Pennine League.

The All Blacks took the bragging rights in this first meeting of the season, however, thanks to a try two minutes from time.

Although the contest sometimes lacked creative attacking structure, it made up for that with no shortage of effort and physical commitment

Neither side could truly say they deserved the win as it was such a close encounter with nothing to choose between the protagonists.

All Blacks took the lead on 15 minutes – taking full advantage of Acorn defenders falling off the tackle on their own try line to crash over for an unconverted score. 4-0.

Acorn should have drawn level on 38 minutes but centre Adam Sellars failed to ground the ball after going over the try line. However, centre Matty Downes rectified the situation when breaking clear on the halfway line to race in for a try. Downes also added the extras to give Acorn a 6-4 interval lead.

The All Blacks regained the lead on 50 minutes when Acorn’s defence again fell off the tackle on their own try line and the hosts crashed over for a converted try. 10-6.

They extended their lead to six points from a 53rd minute penalty.

Despite the narrowness of their attack, Acorn were well served in the forward exchanges by the work rate of prop forward Adam Endersby, second rower Reece Rushworth and the physical presence of sub prop forward Davey Burns, who was returning from a lengthy lay-off.

Acorn finally produced a piece of creative attacking play on 67 minutes which ended with scrum half Jordan Myers releasing former first team captain and assistant coach Tom Hill who crashed over for a try. Mackley added the extras to level the scores.

Mackley appeared to have engineered victory for Acorn when he coolly kicked a 25 metre drop goal with 13 minutes to play but New Earswick hit back in the 78th minute to take the spoils.