YORK RI ended the year with a stunning 22-20 victory over a Northallerton side from the

division above.

Northallerton, who play their rugby in Yorkshire Two, relied on their heavy pack to win set piece ball and their stand-off to kick for position.

This seemed to be working when after 15 minutes they opened the scoring. From a line out deep in RI's half Steve Robinson scored from the resulting rolling maul.

Their lead was short lived however as a break by full-back Allott was carried on by Ward and when he was finally stopped, Nathan Ashman was on hand to pick up and burst over the line. Matthew Yates converted.

The Railwaymen held this lead until deep in the first half when Northallerton's pack drove RI off their own ball and Robinson was on hand to score his second try.

A penalty each just before the break gave Northallerton a 15-10 lead.

With RI getting virtually no set piece ball it was always going to be difficult to stop the Northallerton forwards but this they did with a tremendous defensive display.

The one time Northallerton breached the RI defence they forced a scrum on the visitors line but lost their own put-in and York went on to score the best try of the game, with Yates, Howard Reed and Allott all involved before Tim Nash finished off the move.

Leading 17-15 with a quarter of an hour to go the game could have still gone either way but now RI, with their tails up were not going to be beaten.

A mistake by Northallerton's scrum-half gifted Howard reed with an interception try to take the score to 22-15.

Heroic defending kept North at bay until just on time when wing forward Conway crossed in the corner but the conversion was missed and the spoils went to RI.

Updated: 11:04 Monday, December 30, 2002