YOU need a strong heart to watch York RI. Tight finishes are the Railwaymen's speciality this season, and they had to cling on again to claim a 22-14 win over Moortown.

RI were cruising at 19-0 midway through the second half but put their Yorkshire Three promotion hopes in jeopardy by conceding two late tries against a side who had offered nothing for 70 minutes.

Seventeen points from Aussie centre Michael Tyrpenou, including two tries, and a try from debutant Mark Oliver proved enough to secure the victory, but RI will have to learn that rugby is an 80-minute game if they are to take the title.

They dominated in virtually every sphere - they drove forward at will with the maul, were devastating in the ruck and applied constant pressure in the loose - and it was no surprise when they opened the scoring after three minutes.

RI drove the ball unerringly towards the Moortown line and whipped it through the hands of forwards and backs before Tyrpenou evaded an easy tackle and squirted through to the posts.

Tyrpenou's second score on 23 minutes was exquisite in its quality. He received the ball 35 metres out, following a pass from fellow Aussie Anthony Allport, crashed through one tackle, handed off a second and swept over the try-line.

The only surprise by that stage was that RI weren't further ahead having squandered half a dozen opportunities.

It took until 19 minutes into the second half for RI to score again when a driving maul saw Oliver, poached from Bridlington's first team, touch down.

But fingernails were being bitten when David McDonald scored for Moortown with eight minutes left after quick ball gave him the room to dive into the right corner.

And RI fell asleep when allowing wing Christian Beeken a huge overlap, again on the right, and, suddenly, RI were up against it at 19-14.

Moortown's race to grab a winner led to indiscipline, however, and a Tyrpenou penalty at the death gave RI a vital win.

Updated: 10:34 Monday, January 23, 2006