U20's suffer heavy defeat against an impressive Yorkshire side

National Under 20 Championship North Division A Durham County Under 20s team badly hit by late cry-offs opened their Championship campaign away to Yorkshire at Hull Ionians RFC and were blown away 61-12. Yorkshire started the game at a tremendous pace and within the opening quarter a shell shocked Durham side trailed 32-0 after 20 minutes. A quick fire five tries by Yorkshire were created by some excellent rugby played at a high pace and it was winger Gary Stevenson (Driffield) who weighed in with a hat-trick to end the game a contest after the opening quarter. However, Durham did not lie down and responded with a try by fly-half Freddie Shepherd (Durham University.) Ranscombe (Durham University) adding the conversion for a 32-7 score line. Yorkshire hit back by turning the screw further with another converted try for a 39-7 halftime lead. After the break, Yorkshire again started very strongly and were rewarded with another converted try. Durham once more steadied the ship displaying an encouraging never say die attitude and this yielded some good phases of rugby inside the Yorkshire 22. Their reward was an unconverted try by scrum-half Paul Tarn (Westoe.) Despite competing for the remainder of the second-half, Durham conceded a further three breakaway tries to the pacey Yorkshire outfit towards the end of the game. The late tries sealed what was a thoroughly well deserved and comprehensive 61-12 win by an impressive Yorkshire side. Durham entertain Cumbria at Gateshead RFC on 12th February in their next match. 2-15 kick-off.