YORK RI RUFC were edged out 15-10 by Yorkshire Four Premier leaders Wibsey to dent their promotion aspirations.

RI, while expecting a difficult encounter, went into the game with confidence, off the back of an eight-game winning run stretching to back to early November.

However, the visitors came back from 10-7 down at the interval to take the spoils, with a losing bonus point not enough to prevent the unlucky RI slipping to fourth following Mosborough’s big win over Knaresborough.

An RI spokesman said: "Both sides put on an excellent display, with some fantastic defence and attractive rugby from both sides.

"The game that could have gone either way, but Wibsey showed why they are league leaders and now destined for promotion by taking the opportunity when it came."

RI visit Bramley Phoenix this coming Saturday looking to bounce back.

A combination of a quick start from Wibsey and a slow one from RI saw the visitors go 7-0 up early on, with a couple of missed tackles allowing an easy score under the posts, duly converted.

This jolted RI into action and they responded with some better defence and, off the back of this, a break from Chris Piercy.

He was stopped short by the full-back but showed awareness to offload from the floor to the supporting Rob McClements, who finished well from 20 metres, with the try converted by Baptiste Briu to level the scores.

The game developed into an arm wrestle, with both sides defending well and preventing any clearcut opportunities.

There were penalties on both sides and, from one of these, Briu edged RI into a 10-7 lead, which the home side carried into the half-time break.

The second half started in a similar fashion, with neither side able to gain a telling advantage.

However, with penalties going against RI, Wibsey eventually elected to level the scores at 10-10, having turned down previous opportunities to kick at goal.

From here RI started to gain an upper hand and good field position, but despite spending a long time pressuring the Wibsey defence, the visitors held firm with some good tackling and a number of turnovers.

The visitors managed to work their way downfield and, again after a period of pressure and some more strong defence, Wibsey found the space they needed out wide to go over in the corner for the winning score with only five minutes left.

With a final push, the home side did manage to create one last opportunity to win the game. However, they weren’t able to take it and the game finished 15-10.

Nestle Rowntree had no game in the Yorkshire Four Shield. They face a tough task this Saturday away to second-placed Burley.