Weekend Review: Otley benefit as Yorkshire rivals suffer blow to survival hopes

The two sides started the day level on points but Otley’s win moved them further away from the relegation zone and four points clear of Blaydon.

Mike Coady and lock Brett Mitchell touched down early on, and hooker Joe Graham added a third in the second half. A penalty try helped Otley clinch the win.

Otley were the region’s only victors in the division on Saturday, with Sheffield Tigers and Huddersfield both having to settle for losing bonus points.

Tigers held the lead three times in their 22-16 defeat at South Leicester, the sides exchanging early penalties with Mark Ireland two from two to put the visitors 6-3 up.

After the hosts struck for the first try of the game it was business as usual for back-row forward Jamie Broadley, who saw his try converted by Ireland to put the Tigers back in the ascendency.

Penalties either side of the break put Leicester ahead again, before Ireland kicked his 11th point of the match to tie the game at 16-16. But more good kicking from the hosts saw them score two more penalties to wrap up victory.

Huddersfield went down by 20 points to 15 at Macclesfield, two second-half tries only enough to rescue a losing bonus point against the hosts who won for the third straight game.

Elsewhere, tries from Robbie Davidson and Oli Cicognini, as well as eight points for Tom Barrett, were not enough to earn Wharfedale the points as they lost 29-18 at Stourbridge, whilst Sheffield were well beaten 47-10 at home to Sale, Jake Barron and Arron Reed scoring two tries apiece for the visitors.

Hull Ionians’ fight for survival in National One was dealt a blow after they fell to a 50-28 defeat at relegation rivals Old Albanians.

Old Albanians wrapped up the bonus point and forged a 29-0 lead inside the first half-hour, Rotimi Segun crossing twice.

Ionians did mount a fightback either side of the break, scoring four of the next five tries.

Hooker Ali Thompson scored two, along with two penalty tries to cut the lead to eight points. But two more tries from Albanians gave them the win.

It was truly a game of two halves in the North Premier as Hull let a 17-0 half-time lead slip at home to Yorkshire rivals Harrogate with the game ending in a 24-24 draw.

Hull’s prop Mike Dias put the home side in the driving seat early on with a try after just six minutes, and 20 minutes later hooker Tom Rice crashed over to double the lead.

In time added on at the end of the opening half, centre Alex Heard scored a try and Steve Johnson added the conversion to make the second half look like a formality.

However, Harrogate came out fighting after the restart and scored through Coser with White converting.

Hull steadied the ship through Liam Regardso, converted by Johnson, but then Harrogate came back with avengeance, scoring tries through subs Andy Boyd and Tim Harvey with one converted by White.

Then in the dying seconds of the game Oli Rosillo popped up to score a try and tie the scores.

Elsewhere, Pocklington were on the wrong end of a 47-6 score line against Kendal and Ilkley lost 17-5 to Billingham.

Sandal let a 17-3 lead slip after having full back Jack Townend sent off as they lost to Morley 24-17.

Bridlington’s push for top spot in the North One East table took a blow as they lost out 39-19 to fellow promotion-hopefuls Alnwick.

Tanner Lightfoot’s 13-point haul helped Bradford and Bingley come from behind three times to win 28-20 at Dinnington, centre Ali Macdonald, full-back Benny Greaves and No 8 Tom Cummins scoring the Bees’ tries.