Monks seals Tigers place at top as Hull rely on Bragman’s accuracy

In wet and windy conditions, Tigers took the lead with the first of three penalties by stand-off Mark Ireland, but he missed the difficult conversion when winger James Montgomery crossed for the only try of the first half.

Ireland’s second penalty put the visitors 11-0 ahead before Lymm replied. Ireland opened the second half with a penalty and converted a try by winger Pete Swatkins, and back-row Lee Monks touched down for a last try.

Hull moved ahead of their rivals into second place with a 24-7 home victory over Firwood Waterloo, who went ahead with a converted try in the 18th minute.

Hull eased in front with the first of stand-off Josh Bragman’s four penalties and an unconverted try by winger Tomasi Tanumi on 33 minutes. Two further penalties by Bragman gave Hull a 14-7 interval lead, and he converted a try by back-row Dan Hague in the 54th minute.

Sheffield moved up two places to fourth with a four-try, 38-3 win over Wirral at Abbeydale Park.

After an opening try by No 8 Jonny France, Wirral pulled back a penalty by Dan Harvey, but that was the visitors’ only score and two penalties by Joe Cribley put Sheffield into an 11-3 interval lead.

Cribley added two further penalties and then converted all three of Sheffield’s second-half tries by Alex Fawdry, Rupert Broadley and Dominic Parsons.

Ilkley conceded three unanswered tries in the second half and lost 41-13 to visitors Birkenhead Park.

Rhys Morgan’s men were five points down early on. A quick fightback followed when winger Ben Magee and Elliott Morgan combined to level only for Birkenhead to hit back with a penalty.

Ilkley led for the only time in the game when Morgan’s second made it 10-8 but after losing a man to the sin-bin they were 
20-13 down by half-time. Two tries, which included a penalty try, killed the game as a contest and Ilkley conceded a fifth try.

Huddersfield YMCA conceded two interception tries in their 28-15 defeat at Burnage.

YM trailed by just three points at the break, having scored a try through hooker James Bell, a conversion and a penalty. Winger Adam Ryder touched down in the second half but that was as good as it got for the visitors

Ronan Evans converted a late penalty try as Cleckheaton claimed a late bonus point in a 
19-14 home defeat to Stockport.

The visitors soon led 12-0 but Josh Hall touched down before the break.

Stockport’s third try was converted and after a melee, in which both sides had a player binned, and a 10-minute delay caused by an ankle injury to the referee, Cleckheaton improved and got their late reward.