Beverley dent Sale’s promotion ambitions

Captain Mark Chester put his side 3-0 up with a penalty in the first five minutes, only for the visitors to hit back with a try from centre Danny Harrison.

Fly-half Chester’s second kick put Morley back in front and they extended the advantage when back-rower Brandon Hannah picked up from the back of the scrum and drove over with an entourage of support.

Chester’s conversion made it 13-5 but back came Rossendale with Sam Lothian’s try out wide to make the half-time score 13-10. Morley stepped up the pace but all too often spurned their opportunities.

However, with six minutes remaining, a cross-field kick was taken in the air by winger Karl Bradshaw who passed inside for replacement winger Peter Dadswell to finish off the move and secure victory.

A fine performance by Beverley brought an unexpected 25-12 win over Sale to seriously damage the visitors’ promotion hopes.

In a hard running open game Beverley always posed the greater threat and protected their line with some outstanding defending.

They led 15-0 at half-time through tries by scrum-half James Munro and Rob Smith and one conversion and a penalty by fly-half Phil Duboulay.

A second converted Munro try took Beverley 22-0 ahead before Sale got into the game with a try by winger Ciaran Connelly.

No 8 Jonathan Keep touched down for Sale with Liam McGovern adding the conversion as the visitors raised their game in a hard fought finish but the only further score came from a second Duboulay penalty.

Bradford and Bingley scored 30 points at Firwood Waterloo but lost by eight points to remain second bottom and in relegation trouble. Their third defeat in a row leaves them nine points adrift of safety and defeat to resurgent Waterloo could prove costly.

Huddersfield’s home game against Sandal was called off.