Sandal produce the perfect response

Sandal 24

Driffield 9

Matt Hemingway ran in two tries as Sandal returned to top form and dominated a game they should have won by an even greater margin.

Having lost their top spot on points difference to Billingham following their defeat at Hartlepool Rovers, Sandal produced the perfect response.

They were fast out of the blocks, Hemingway going over after five minutes with Greg Wood adding the conversion.

Prop Rob Norbury dropped on the ball for a try after a solid drive from the pack put them over the line and even though Lee Birch kept Driffield in it with two penalties, Sandal continued to dominate.

Prop James Purcell grabbed another pushover try and Sandal could have had more but they squandered some good chances.

However, they rounded off in style with Hemingway sprinting over in the corner.

Birch added a final penalty for the visitors but it was only consolation after they had been outplayed by a side still looking a solid bet for the title.

Old Crossleyans 12

Carlisle 7

Four penalties from Ed Cockroft were enough to give Crossleyans victory in a uninspiring encounter which saw both sides struggling to create any rhythm or consinstency.

Second-from-bottom Carlisle had the better of the first 20 minutes and deserved to go ahead when captain Steve Stamper came up with the ball for a pushover try.

Crossleyans gradually worked their way into the game, without looking threatening and Cockroft's first two penalties saw them turn round only a point behind.

With their scrum under pressure, Crossleyans could never get going but two more successful kicks edged them in front.

They had to play the final 10 minutes with a man short after a sin-binning and with Carlisle pounding away at their line it took some excellent defence for the home side to hang on.

Morpeth 21

Ilkley 0

After beating Pontefract 33-7 in their previous encounter, Ilkley were looking for a brighter 2010 but they never got started against a decent Morpeth side.

It was only excellent defensive work that kept the scoreline to within reasonable bounds but going forward Ilkley lacked guile and ideas and they will need to produce more consistency if they are to escape their bottom spot.

Pontefract 10

Durham City 20

Pontefract got caught cold and were 14-0 down after 21 minutes and, even though they enjoyed a reasonable share of possession, they never looked likely to come back.

Michael Bateman pulled a try back before the break when Pontefract opted for a scrum from a penalty and Glenn Boyd put the full-back over but the visitors had stretched their lead to 20-5 with two penalties before the home side could strike again.

That also came from a scrum with the ball being worked down the line to winger Jonathan Wylie, who sprinted over.