Bees leapfrog Chester to pile pressure on leaders Stockport

Lymm 8

Bradford & Bingley 19

Bradford & Bingley emerged victorious from a close fought game where defence and the Bees upper hand in the pack were the deciding factors.

The four points from the win allows the Bees to leapfrog Chester to second place in the table, nine points behind leaders Stockport, who the Bees must face home and away later in the season.

Playing with the wind at their backs the Bees were awarded a penalty almost from the kick-off as Dave Muckault tore into the Lymm defence, causing an early panic. Gavin Stead duly stepped up to slot the three points over.

Seven minutes later Stead was on the scoresheet again, landing another penalty. Lymm replied with a penalty of their own on 13 minutes and as they started to put together a few phases in attack, their enterprise was rewarded with a score in the right-hand corner from Adam Bray.

The home lead was short lived as Stead stepped up for the Bees to land a third penalty, a 9-8 advantage.

As the half wore on, the Bees continued to press, but it seemed the score would not come until suddenly the ball was spun wide to the right as Grant Litt changed the point of attack.

The ball zipped through a couple of pairs of hands and for the first time Gavin Stead found himself with some space to run. As the final Lymm defender came to tackle the Bees leading scorer, Stead jinked to his right and was in at the corner, giving the Bees a six-point cushion.

The Bees pack had the advantage at the scrum and when they could get the rolling maul going, Lymm managed to hold out the Bees juggernaut until right on half time when Muckault drove over to claim the final points of the half and of the game.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first as Lymm tried to inject some pace into the game, with several tidy half breaks, only to find a barn door in the way as Stuart Dixon, Steve Brimacombe, Grant Litt and Ben Greaves all made crunching tackles.

The Bees forwards continued to try and bully their way over the line only to be held up six or seven times. As the gloom deepened the spark from the Lymm backline faded and the Bees had done enough to see them home and up into second place.

Sandal 10

Beverley 17

Without a win since October, Sandal produced another stuttering performance to end up with only a losing bonus-point as Beverley completed the double.

The visitors started the game with the wind and slope in their favour and managed to rack-up a 17-point lead as Sandal struggled to get even their basics right.

Early on centre Junior Tupai crossed under the sticks and scrum-half Phil Dale converted. Centre Sam Atiola then went on to add two further unconverted tries, one that saw him blitz his way through numerous tackles, to extend the scoreline to 0-17.

Dan McCormack's penalty put Sandal on the board just before half time.

After the interval the visitors set about tying up the ball and closing down the game and Sandal continued to struggle to force the play with their lineout not clicking.

They finally got something back on the hour when winger Dave Martin broke through and McCormack converted but, despite only being seven points behind, Sandal just couldn't take the game to Beverley whose defence proved water-tight.

Middlesbrough 23

Birkenhead Park 14

After their disastrous performance at Bradford and Bingley a week earlier, Middlesbrough redeemed themselves with a well-deserved win against higher-placed Birkenhead Park.

Middlesbrough went 15-0 up with the wind behind them in the first half, taking the lead after only two minutes when winger Paul Norris touched down for a try which Simon O'Farrell, now playing at full-back rather than fly-half, did well to convert from the touchline.

O'Farrell then added three points when Birkenhead were penalised for offside, but the conversion went wide when hooker Richard Horton crossed for a try after 26 minutes.

Although Middlesbrough dominated the first-half play, that was the final score before the turnround and Birkenhead opened the second-half scoring when Middlesbrough were offside after 45 minutes and the visitors' winger Dave Howell landed the penalty.

He added another penalty seven minutes later when Middlesbrough offended at a scrum, and O'Farrell and Howell then exchanged further penalties to leave the score at 18-9.

Then, after considerable pressure by the visitors, they brought the score back to 18-14 with a try by replacement prop Matthew Ibbotson only three minutes after he had come on to the field, and this galvanised Middlesbrough into late action.

They sealed the win when, in the 76th minute and after good all-round pressure which saw some of the best rugby of the game, winger Callum Campbell raced over for a final try.

Burton 14

Sheffield Tigers 31

Sheffield Tigers moved up to fifth place in the Midlands Division, with a match in hand over all four teams above them, when they claimed their seventh straight league win.

Tigers, despite playing against the wind in the first half, quickly established their superiority against the second to bottom side and scored four tries without reply before the interval.

They went ahead when loose head prop Sam Lockwood, recently selected for England Universities, crashed over for a try which Jonny West converted, and they increased their lead with another from full-back Jon Feeley, West again adding the points.

Centre Jon Buchanan, who had scored two tries against Hereford the previous week, ran in Tigers' third try, and open side flanker Nick Pearson crossed for the fourth after an excellent move from halfway which saw the ball go through several pairs of hands. Both were converted by West.

Ironically, the wind swung round to give Burton an easier time in the second half, and they came back into the game with two converted tries before West sealed Tigers' win late in the game with an excellent penalty from 40 metres out.

England captain Lewis Moody is expected to be fit for their Six Nations opener in Cardiff, despite limping off in Bath's Heineken Cup win over Aironi.

"He's twisted his knee and at this stage he's very confident that it's something not particularly serious," said Bath coach Steve Meehan. "He doesn't seem too concerned - it may be a week out – but he seems quite confident."

England play Wales in their opening Six Nations game on February 4.