Sandal warm up for title showdown

Sandal 32

Old Brodleians 3

Sandal geared up for their crunch top-of-the-table encounter at Billingham with a comfortable victory over Old Brodleians.

Sandal were dominant from beginning to end, despite falling behind to an early penalty from Ollie Ackroyd.

From then on, the hosts led the way. Greg Wood landed an equalising penalty and centre and captain Dan McCormack put them in front when he touched down.

Wood kicked the conversion and slotted a penalty to put Sandal 13-3 in front at the break.

The second half was one-way traffic and the home side ran in three more tries through flanker Shaun McGuire, McCormack and Wood, who also kicked two more conversions.

Pontefract 13

Billingham 39

Pontefract were unable to reproduce the good form they showed against Sandal and were always second best to title-challengers Billingham.

The game was out of sight for Pontefract by half-time when they only had a penalty from Andy Dean to show for their efforts while the visitors had run in five unconverted tries.

Pontefract's best period came at the beginning of the second half when they managed to edge the play but could only turn their advantage into five points. From a scrum, the ball was spun out and chipped through for winger Simon Spears to race in and score.

Billingham came back into it after that and improved their advantage to 39-8 but in the dying seconds a quickly taken penalty ended in a try in the corner for full-back Michael Bateman.

Old Crossleyans 18

Darlington 12

While the glue-pot of a pitch suited Darlington's huge pack, Crossleyans held firm and ran out winners as the visiting forwards tired.

Player-coach Chris Jones put Crossleyans on the board with a penalty and then provided the inside pass to put Neil Richardson in between the posts.

A successful conversion put Crossleyans 10-0 in front but the power of the Darlington pack told just before the break when they forced their way over for an unconverted try.

With 12 minutes to go, a Crossleyans attack broke down near the Darlington line and winger Tony Taylor ran the length of the pitch to score, the conversion nudging the visitors in front for the first time.

It was the 80th minute before the home side regained the advantage, Jones kicking a penalty and as the game went into its fifth minute of stoppage time, Crossleyans mounted a final attack and sent Jack Hammond through a gap from 20 metres to touch down.

Ilkley 3

Durham City 14

Ilkley lost out in a close but dour contest.

Durham took early control and a try and penalty put them 8-0 in front. The boot of Peter Shanks landed a goal to reduce the gap before the interval.

Durham made sure of the points with two more penalties after the break.

Morpeth 21

Driffield 16

Driffield slipped back out of the top three as Morpeth overturned a 30-19 defeat at Kelleythorpe in November.

Matthew Jinks, the Morpeth stand-off, scored all the home side's points. They quickly took control and went ahead after seven minutes when Jinks touched down for a try which he converted himself.

Lee Birch pulled back a penalty for Driffield and added another on the stroke of half-time.

Jinks kicked three penalties to Birch's one to put Morpeth 16-9 ahead and the home side drove home their advantage when Jinks raced over for his second try, which he failed to convert.

Driffield fought their way back but it was not until the 77th minute that centre Tom Wright sprinted over for their only try.

With Birch having gone off with a leg injury, stand-off Jordan McGregor kicked the conversion.