Between the salt water and the sea strand

"The old rugby club or the new one", asked the driver as I boarded the bus. I was concerned - was there some sort of breakaway, and a risk of finding no game? Further clarification disclosed that old club had been demolished: Scarborough Rugby Club sold their old ground in a prime development location and used the proceeds to obtain new premises in Scalby, overlooking the North Sea. The facilities were very impressive, some of the best I have seen at this level, with a large clubhouse, a gym and indoor facilities for the players and for income generation, 6 or 7 training pitches, an immaculate First Team pitch, and a stand with its back to the sea, a sensible direction for games in January when the wind is whipping off the Dogger Bank.

The club was this year's venue for the Yorkshire v Lancashire match in the County Championship for the Bill Beaumont Cup.

The last couple of times it has been Yorkshire's turn to host, the game has been in the old West Riding, but this time we were deep into their home territory. Both sides naturally want to win the pool stage and get through to the final at Twickenham, they also want the other not to be relegated to the pool for the County Plate, so we can have the fixture the following year. The game was promoted well around the town, including a big banner in the main shopping street.

The weather was much better than the Met Office app had been predicting, sunny in the morning for a walk round the town and Castle, and intermittent cloud cover during the game, one of those afternoons where Auto ISO comes into play.

In football, I refer to the "a goal is a goal" principle, where a picture that would otherwise be rejected makes the final collection as it depicts a goal being scored: the equivalent in rugby is "a try is a try". The try was in the original Rules (I am not sure when they changed the name to Laws) of Association Football, as well as the Laws of the Rugby Football Union, and only allowed the team a kick at goal. The points system was adopted by the RFU in 1886, although the idea of an opportunity to try for goal persisted in rugby union in theory until 1979, with the points for the goal replacing those for the try.

Here are a couple of examples of the "a try is a try" principle.

Here, sharp focus is on the far post rather than on Lancashire's Christopher Johnson crossing the line.

Here there is a ruck on the line with the referee obscuring the view, but on the right, Lancashire's Evan Stewart is getting away from the melée to score.

For the photographer, rugby union is noted for its set pieces, such as the scrum. For the last few years, forming the scrum has taken place in 4 distinct stages on the referee's instruction - crouch, touch, pause, engage. This is to reduce the likelihood of shoulder, and most importantly, neck injuries when the two packs come together: before the rule was introduced, packs would come together at what seemed to me an alarming speed from a couple of yards apart.

The scrum here is observing the "touch" command, to ensure that they engage from no more than an arm's length apart. It may be my imagination, I have watched less than half a dozen games this season, and I cannot adduce photographic evidence, but referees seem to be calling the sequence more slowly than previously with the effect that the players are anticipating the commands - "engage" seems sometimes to be a statement of fact rather than an instruction.

I also tried a new vantage point for rugby: I remained at the end that Lancashire were attacking for the second half. As the game attracted a good crowd, the motivation was mainly gaining elbow room. The action seemed quite distant, looking across the in goal area.

However, there was a better view of the players running directly towards me ...

... tackling the opposition running in the opposite direction ...

... and it is easier to capture a try without other players or the match officials obscuring the view.

Oliver Brennand scores one of his four tries

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.