TEENAGE second rower Reece Rushworth scored a hat-trick of tries in York Acorn’s 36-28 home win over Blackbrook.

The victory was far from comfortable, however, as Acorn allowed Blackbrook back into the game when leading 22-6 just before the interval.

The converted try sparked frustration and indiscipline in the Acorn side and Rushworth was sent to the sin-bin for dissent after a Josh Thompson ‘try’ was ruled out because of a forward pass.

Acorn had opened the scoring after just two minutes when Rushworth crashed over for a try from a Josh Thompson pass.

Anthony Chilton added the extras to give Acorn a 6-0 lead.

Blackbrook hit back on seven minutes when capitalising on an excellent Jordan Welsby 40/20 kick which set up second rower Craig Lyon to touchdown.

Welsby added the extras to level the scores.

Acorn regained the lead on 12 minutes when quick hands along the three-quarters created the opportunity for winger Matty Downes go over in at the corner. Chilton converted.

Acorn extended their lead to 16-6 when they once again profited from quick hands to get round the Blackbrook defence and send Rushworth over for his second try.

On 24 minutes, Acorn moved into a commanding 22-6 lead when, out of nothing, scrum half Matthew Chilton caught the visitors’ defence flat footed and cut his way over for a quality individual try. His brother Anthony added the extras.

On the stroke of halftime, Acorn fell to a sucker punch when the visitors went blind from a scrum heel in the Acorn 20 and centre Jordan Darwin went over in the corner.

Welsby popped over the conversion to give the visitors a glimmer of hope and reduce the deficit to 22-12.

The second half started brightly for Acorn and Rushworth ran the perfect line to go over for his hat trick.

Chilton put Acorn 28-12 in front with the subsequent conversion.

But Acorn then lost their way and Blackbrook found a ‘soft zone’ on the right side edge of defence to score the game’s next point in the 50th minute.

Dangerman Darwin broke clear down the Acorn right hand side and, two passes later, substitute Jimmy Brown had gone in under the posts for a try which Welsby converted to reduce the lead to 28-18.

Acorn managed to stem the tide momentarily in the 58th minute when powerful winger Jack Stewart stormed over for a try out wide.

Chilton then added an excellent touchline conversion to put Acorn back in control at 34-18.

But more twists and turns followed and Acorn were rocked by Rushworth’s sin binning. Blackbrook enjoyed a piece of good fortune as Darwin was awarded a 61st minute try by the referee despite, apparently, losing the ball when going over the try line.

Welsby popped over the conversion to reduce Acorn’s lead to 34-24.

Alarm bells had started to ring on 69 minutes when the visitors once again cut through the right hand side of Acorn’s defence to score an unconverted try through winger Josh Dyer which narrowed the gap to only six points.

However, a 72nd minute penalty goal by Anthony Chilton calmed Acorn’s nerves and pushed the home side into a decisive 36-28 lead which they held onto until the final whistle.

Overall, this was ‘job done’ by Acorn who have now recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

However, the performance was not to the level they will need to achieve if they are to trouble the likes of high flying Normanton - who are next week’s visitors to Thanet Road.

Coach Leigh Paul-Rientoul will undoubtedly have seen plenty of areas in need of improvement.

The pick of the Acorn players were the ever-improving Rushworth, winger Stewart and prop Tim Stubbs.