On a very cold sunny January afternoon with a deceptively keen westerly breeze conditions were ideal for playing, but not watching, good open rugby. After 3 defeats in a row 'Ensians were looking for some reward as Goole only won by 2 points way back in October.
'Ensians lost the toss and Goole elected to take advantage of the breeze and the low sun . The Visitors attacked from the start spending most of the time in the home 22 and only great defence and a try saving tackle by Josh Howarth kept the try line intact .A penalty followed by a second scrum against the head gave 'Ensians some respite, but after 13 minutes Goole gained a turnover and their speedy winger scored a try wide out with an excellent conversion to give them a 7 points to nil lead. Four minutes later Goole were awarded a penalty from which they barged over to score another converted try (14—0).
It was 20 minutes before the home team advanced into the Visitor's half aided by a couple of penalties but any serious attacks were thwarted by the visitor's sound defence. Goole came storming back and were camped in the home 22 for the next 10 minutes but the home defence was superb and Goole were kept at bay by a further penalty and a lineout taken "against the head" by Oli Cooper. With 1 minute to go in the half and the Home team's defence holding well Goole scored an unfortunate unconverted try from a lineout to give a disappointing score at half time of 19 points to nil to Goole.
Talk about a game of two halves.!! With the now dropping wind behind them 'Ensians stormed into the attack with Paddy Phipps and Luke Cowdell prominent resulting in a well taken try by Kristian Keinhorst who was having a good game also converted by him .It was now the home team's turn to put the visitors on the rack and after 11 minutes a penalty in the Goole 22 followed by a bullocking run by Rob Arbuckle created a gap for Alex Murphy to score an unconverted try to make the score 19-12 to the visitors. The next 20 minutes was spent mainly in the Goole 22 with the forwards battering the Goole pack and controlling the scrums and the backs putting the opposition backs under great pressure. Despite some fine work in the lineouts by Oli Cooper and Sam Featherstone, hard metres gained by Joel Wakeman and Rob Arbuckle and some great backs moves bringing in both wingers who came tantalisingly close to scoring, the next score was a penalty by Will Cooper after 31 minutes to bring the score to 15 points to 19 for Goole.
The visitors then had a 5 minute period in the Home half but again 'Ensians came back showing super team spirit and fitness and rattling the Goole defence. Somehow the defence held and Goole finished up the winners by 19 points to 15 where perhaps a draw would have been a fair result.
The Goole coach said afterwards that their first half display was their best of the season .The 'Ensians second half performance and spirit was certainly their best for many weeks and augers well for the coming games.