Otley force their way into early promotion picture as Temm refuses to let winning advantage slip

Once again Otley made a dazzling start, moving the ball confidently and snuffing out all attempts by the opposition to drive their way to the line, to reach half-time with a 22-0 lead.

The architect of the victory was, without doubt, back-row Dan Temm who grabbed three tries and provided the scoring pass for the other two, the first on 11 minutes when, following a lineout, he appeared midfield to put centre Chris Gemmell in, full-back Mark Ireland kicking the first of four conversions. He then followed that with a 40-metre penalty.

Winning a line-out, the Otley forwards drove for the line where Temm broke off to crash over and just before the break he cut a swathe through the Dudley defence to set winger James Wood on a dash for the corner.

After the break, Otley once again lost the momentum and allowed the visitors into the game but not Temm, who tracked Arnie Ellison as the full-back cut through to take over and touch down. A penalty gave Dudley a five-metre lineout and prop Steven Blackburn drove over, fly-half Gareth Bown converting but Temm, breaking from a scrum on halfway manoeuvred his way to the posts. Dudley scored two late tries,one converted, but they could not stop Otley.

Hull put up a spirited fight to gain a four-try bonus point before going down 36-26 to Macclesfield.

Macclesfield were quick out of the blocks when Ryan Parkinson was driven over the line, but five minutes later Hull took the lead when winger Alex Piercy side-stepped his way through, James Cameron converting.

Three minutes later, full-back Jamie Barnard came into the line for an unconverted try to put Hull 12-5 ahead. In a game of rapidly changing fortunes, Dean Williams took advantage of some defensive hesitancy to collect a try, converted by Mike Barlow, to level the scores at 12-12.

On 26 minutes, another catch and drive by the home pack saw them go 17-12 ahead, but Mitchell Turner scored his first try for Hull, converted by Cameron, to see the visitors 19-17 ahead

Mark Sinnemore and Ed Stobart scored two quick-fire tries for Macclesfield.

Macclesfield’s Rick Hopkin, scored a try converted by Ashley Platt-Hughes but in added time Hull debutant Dominic Lespierre went over for a try with Cameron adding the conversion.

Sheffield Tigers went down 
29-17 at Sedgley Park.

Full-back Pete Swatkins scored their only try of the first half.

The Manchester side extended their lead to 29-5 before Tigers replacement Felix Pearson touched down in the last 10 minutes, and a penalty try was converted by Will Carrington.

A youthful-looking Harrogate side went down 32-31 at Luctonians. In an end-to-end game Harry Parrish was first across the paint for Gate.

Oli Denton then set up a counter attack from deep and Lucs were penalised for holding on in the tackle zone. Phil Wickham tapped and ran, the ball was spun left and Chris Wilson crashed over in the corner.

Quickly recycled ball led to a try by Andy Boyde and it was 31-25 to Harrogate with 10 minutes remaining.

However, that was as good as it got for Harrogate. A badly-missed tackle at the end enabled Alex Rumsey to cross the line and run between the posts to give Langdon a simple conversion.

Callum Irvine kicked 16 points.