Goole travelled down to Nottinghamshire side Southwell in Round One of the RFU Cup on Saturday and came away with a well-earned 9-12 win despite the unavailability of a number of first team regulars. The forwards in particular being depleted with ex-first team captain Steve Morris and the experienced Craig Fenton stepping in to take up the first team challenge once again. Add to them Greaves, Wileman, Hutton, Johnson and Millward and you have, what on paper looks like a pack that may be up against it with Chantry being the only current day experienced forward in the team.
As it turned out it was Goole’s forwards that won them the game after dominating the scrums and making life very uncomfortable for the home team pack. With a far more familiar back line strengthened by the return of Sam Smith, one could argue that Goole should have gone on to win the game comfortably with the back line that also included Lill, Malcolmson, Jerry-Murray, Harman and Cooper but that was not the case as the Goole backs never really got out of first gear in a match that contained numerous penalty awards for technical offences. The entire match being stop start with countless restarts with Goole very often being deemed to be the offending side. With Goole having the upper hand in the scrums it was no surprise that the opening score came from a scrum penalty in front of the Southwell posts. A quick tap penalty resulted in Team Captain Rhys Moore going over for an opening try for Goole to take the early lead 0-5. Mid way through the half the home side got on the scoreboard with straight forward penalty kick to make the score 3-5 but it was Goole that stretched their lead with a rare event of a push over try from a 5m scrum. Chantry touching down and Moore converted to stretch Goole’s lead to 3-12 after 12 mins of the match. The remainder of the first half was relatively dull in the drizzling rain with the home side converting another of the many penalties Goole conceded to bring the half time score to 6-12 and all to play for. The second half started as the first ended with Goole conceding early penalties with the home team missing one kick at goal but converting a following kick it was game on with the score now 9-12 and some 30 minutes left to play.
It was certainly looking as if Goole could be beaten due to the number of penalties conceded but thankfully that did not happen with the game concluded in a dull midfield tussle with neither team threatening to score a try. In the end a 9-12 away cup win was all that was needed with Goole having the edge on quality overall thanks primarily to the excellent display from the forwards. Whilst this was not a classic, an away win in a cup competition is never easy and the whole squad should be proud that they got the job done. It will certainly be a much harder challenge next week when Goole host Hullensians in the opening round of the Yorkshire Shield.