Morley 12, Bradford & Bingley 59

The Bees strolled past a ragged-looking Morley side, collecting nine tries on a freezing afternoon.

This was despite the last-minute withdrawal of Richard Scull and Tom Kanouros, with head coach Stuart Dixon coming in to bolster the midfield.

From the first set-piece, Tom Bills zipped over out wide on the left to open the scoring. With Gavin Stead struggling with a hamstring pull, Bills assumed kicking duties and landed the first of seven conversions.

Three minutes later, Dixon clattered through Morley’s midfield to slip the ball to his centre partner Richard Tafa, who jogged in for the score.

Second row Tom Hanson – Morley’s best player by some margin – fought his way to the line and Simon Bradshaw added the extras to put the hosts back in it.

But Tom Cokell made a fine individual break to the right of the posts to push Bees 14 points clear.

The referee awarded Morley a string of penalties, which kept the visitors at bay until ten minutes before the break when Adam Wellington burst up the middle before feeding Tafa for an easy score.

Five minutes later, Stead showed he could still find his way to the line at half-pace as he bounced off a couple of tackles and touched down.

With Bees 33-7 up at half-time, a cricket score looked on the cards but Morley upped their commitment in the first 15 minutes of the second period.

Tafa was still able to claim his third score, with Bills adding the extras, before Morley replied as back rower Stuart Costello got over the whitewash.

That was as good as it got for the hosts as the Bees pack took control. Six scrums in a row were turned over as the Wagon Laners drove straight over the humbled home pack.

This period of domination yielded two scores as Wellington zipped down the touchline on 67 minutes and Stewart Brewer emerged from a pile of bodies on 71 minutes to claim five-pointers.

At 52-12, Wellington capped a fine individual performance with another burst up his wing for the score to round out a rather easy afternoon for the Bees.