Pack power seals victory for Sandal

Sandal 48

Old Crossleyans 20

Sandal ran in seven tries as they maintained their two-point lead at the top of the table.

Crossleyans had three of their regular forwards missing and found it hard to counter the confident home side who went in front after 10 minutes with a pushover try from prop James Purcell. Tom Smith, kicking in the absence of the injured Greg Wood, added the extras.

Ed Cockroft put Crossleyans on the board with a penalty but three minutes later Sandal No 8 Sam Whittingham intercepted on halfway and sprinted to the line.

Smith's conversion and a penalty put the home side 17-3 in front but the visitors put themselves back in the game when winger James Wainwright went over with Cockroft converting.

Sandal quickly doused hopes of a comeback with tries either side of the break from Tom Coad and Tom Hodson to go 29-10 in front but Crossleyans stuck to their task and scored a converted try from Gareth Orr and a penalty.

Sandal's class shone through as they controlled the final 20 minutes with 19-year-old Hodson completing a hat-trick and Shaun McGuire adding the last on the stroke of full-time.

Carlisle 42

Ilkley 7

After a shock win over title-chasing Billingham the previous week, Ilkley were brought crashing down to earth as Carlisle raced into a 22-0 lead.

The visitors managed to get on the board just before the break when No 8 Hamish Pratt forced his way over and Peter Shanks added the conversion.

Ilkley enjoyed more of the possession in the second half but the visitors scored on each of four visits to the visitors' 22.

Pontefract 15

Percy Park 7

A second successive win moved Pontefract up to sixth but they made hard work of it.

Mike Spears went over to put Pontefract in front after 27 minutes and Glen Boyd added the conversion and kicked a penalty just before the break.

Spears grabbed his second try with 12 minutes to go but a sin-binning in the pack raised the visitors' hopes and they quickly went over for a converted try.

A second yellow in the front-row two minutes later saw Pontefract down to 13 men and the sin-binning also forced the referee to revert to uncontested scrums.

Fortunately for the home side, Percy Park were tactically nave and failed to take advantage of their extra numbers allowing Pontefract to hang on.

Old Brodleians 17

Durham City 8

Two second-half tries from fly-half Liam Scott helped Brodleians to a victory in a match that was something of an arm-wrestle, especially in the first half.

Neither side was able to establish supremacy as they battled for possession in the first period. The visitors took an early lead with a penalty which was quickly levelled by Ollie Ackroyd, but Durham edged 8-3 in front at the break with an unconverted try.

Brodleians sorted a few things out at half-time and started to dominate the match and they deserved to take the points thanks to Scott's two touchdowns, converted by Ackroyd.

Driffield 35

Gateshead 0

Driffield moved to within one point of third place.

They turned round 11 points ahead after a lacklustre first half in which they had defended well.

The Woldsmen took the lead when left winger Alistair McClarron raced over and Lee Birch added two penalties.

Driffield raised their game in the second half and increased their lead with a try by stand-off Jordan MacGregor, converted by Birch.

Outside centre Tom Wright then ran in another before second-row Oliver Cooper crashed over.

Driffield completed the scoring when No 8 Sam Beechill touched down and Birch landed the conversion.