National 3 North: Tigers make light of Ward’s red card as they topple the leaders

A red card for Mike Ward in the first half saw Tigers down to 14 men, and a yellow card with 10 minutes remaining meant they had their backs to the wall.

They defended well and even had a ‘try’ disallowed late on as they continued to press.

After Sale had scored an early try, winger Henri Packard touched down for Tigers and centre Tom Outram converted.

Pete Swatkins raced in from full-back on 15 minutes to extend the lead, and although Ward was sent off shortly after, it did not stop Tigers dominating and they led 17-8 at half-time with Packard scoring his second try midway through the half.

Tigers defended for the first 20 minutes of the second half but a penalty was all the hosts could manage. Outram also kicked one too to make it 20-11.

Beverley lost 49-11 at Waterloo, with the home side scoring seven converted tries.

Waterloo led 14-6 at the break from tries by full-back James O’Brien and centre John Cunningham to two penalties by Beverley captain Phil Duboulay.

For most of the half the score had been 7-6 but a third Waterloo try immediately after the interval was followed by three more. Full-back Robbie Davison touched down for a consolation Beverley try.

Huddersfield YMCA survived a late fright to beat fellow strugglers Morley 33-32.

Ollie Flegg, Luke Stevenson and Tom Clough touched down as Morley took a 20-0 lead in the first quarter.

With Morley down to 14 after a sin-binning, YMCA hit back with three tries of their own including an interception by centre Ed Barber and a chip and chase by Gavin Stead. A penalty try on the stroke of half-time saw the home side turn around 26-20 in front.

Stead’s second try extended the advantage to 13 points but Morley hit back through Mark Chester, converted by Stevenson.With three minutes left, Clough went over again but the conversion was missed.

James Ellar, Joe Allott and James Briscoe scored hat-tricks as Sandal beat Westoe 98-7 at home.

Joe Bedford grabbed two and Tom Proctor, James Stewart, Gareth Newman, Danny Mitchell and Kieran Moffatt also touched down with Mark Pease adding nine conversions.

Cleckheaton’s unbeaten home record ended as Lymm won 17-13.

Ross Hayden’s penalty gave Cleckheaton a 3-0 interval lead.

Lymm centre Jack Ecclestone and full-back Joe Knowles had tries converted by Richard Halford, who also struck a penalty.

Lee Queeley and Danny Vento, with a try in the 80th minute, struck back but Cleckheaton missed both conversions.