IN their last North Yorkshire Challenge match before the Christmas break, York RI RUFC's U18s maintained their 100 per cent record despite a spirited fightback by visitors Knaresborough to win 27-10.

RI led 15-0 at the break after a debut try for Eddie Sykes and further touchdowns by Danny Wright and Tom Heslop.

The second half started well for RI as Gareth Stewart crashed over with Robin Grice adding the conversion.

But for the next half-hour RI fell foul of the referee and Knaresborough used the penalties to camp in the RI 22.

With five minutes left the visitors had exploited the situation to score two converted tries to cut RI's lead to eight points.

Magnificent defence and some rolling forward play saw RI gain a rare lineout in Boro territory. Gareth Stewart took a tap down at the front of the line to storm towards the line and as he was tackled Carl Ward was in support to score.

Updated: 10:21 Saturday, December 18, 2004