A LAST minute penalty consigned York RUFC to an 18-17 defeat at home to Morley in North One East.

York enjoyed territorial advantage early in the game, but were unable to force the ball over the line for a score.

Morley took advantage of a York turnover to open the scoring. Winger Noah Hawkins was untroubled in his run-in from 40 metres out.

The visitors added seven points to their lead when centre Harrison Baylis scraped out of a tackle and released Connor Wilson to score. Mark Chester converted.

After another pointless foray into the Morley 22, York conceded another three points to Chester’s boot.

Then York's Shane Goulding broke the defensive line and, with George Davies in support, the home team pushed Morley deep in to their own half.

York were awarded a penalty kick and scrum-half Toby Atkin tapped the ball immediately and dived over for a try and a 15-5 half-time scoreline.

Goulding broke again from the kick-off and ran the full 60 metres to score beside the posts. Ben Dyson-Dent converted.

With Morley number five Nick Green in the sin-bin, Goulding picked the ball up from the base of an advancing scrum and pushed over to give York a slim two-point lead.

With time running out, Morley won a penalty and Chester kicked the winning points from 30 metres.

On Saturday, York travel to Pocklington, who will be looking to bounce back from their 26-20 defeat at West Hartlepool.

Pock's great start unravelled in the middle period and, despite scoring four tries to the home side's three, they came away with only two points - one for their try quartet plus a losing bonus.

Just two minutes in Pock kicked a penalty to the corner and drove over for the opening score through prop Chris Morton.

Six minutes later they staged a repeat, with lock and skipper Archie Fothergill getting the touchdown this time from another catch and drive.

And Pocklington made it 15-0 inside 13 minutes when Christian Pollock and Ben Rees, stepping out of retirement to solve a scrum-half crisis, combined down the left to send Jonty Peters storming down the touchline to score.

But the swirling wind denied Pocklington's kickers any conversion points, a deficiency that was to later come back to haunt them.

West crossed from their first two raids and crucially added the goal points to be just a point behind.

On the half hour West's back row was allowed to pick up from a scrum to gallop clear for another converted try.

Wests increased the margin by three points thanks to a long range penalty early in the second period.

Pock finally they forced another close range lineout which brought another pack drive and try for hooker Jim Thornton.

Malton & Norton were blown away in the second half as they went down 52-24 at Moortown.

The visitors fell behind early on but hit back when they swept down to the corner, won a lineout and a converted try was the reward two phases later for Matt Bowman on 16 minutes.

Then debutant Joe Browne was put in for a try on 20 minutes. After another Moortown try, Will Bell showed his speed and jinking ability to take the ball out of defence on 28 minutes for Adam Thompson to finish wide out.

Malton's only score of the second half came when Rob Featherstone barged over for a try, which Bulmer converted, while Moortown added five tries to their total.

York RI kicked off their latest Yorkshire Four campaign with a 29-15 win at Stocksbridge.

The strong running and evasion skills of debutant RI centre Sam Royle brought the opening try, which was converted by full-back Chris Jones.

The home side responded with a penalty, but RI dominated the rest of the half and winger Harry Evans ran in a smart finish to extend the lead to 12-3.

RI number eight Lewis Starbuck found space down the blindside and powered over for a try and an offload then sent Royle under the posts for his second score, again converted by Jones for a 24-3 half-time lead.

Stocksbridge came back to 24-15, before replacement wing Andy Brentnall gathered the ball and touched down for RI.

Nestle Rowntree opened their season with a 25-10 win at home to Sheffield Oaks.

On 10 minutes young fly-half Sam Protheroe cut through to score for Trees, with Jack Daniels converting.

Centre Henry Ford strode over to score an unconverted try, before Oaks came back with two unconverted tries.

On half-time, Daniels kicked a penalty to make it 15-10.

From the restart, debutant Trees winger Jake Porter scored out wide and on the hour new captain and hooker Ryan Roodt ran 30 metres to score in the corner to claim the bonus point.