Duxbury magic the difference for Baildon (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Duxbury magic the difference for Baildon

4:25pm Sunday 28th October 2012 in Sport By Sports Desk

Leeds Medics & Dentists 7 Baildon 8

Baildon produced their best performance of the season to edge a tense thriller at Weetwood.

With both teams playing open, attacking rugby and defending ferociously, it took a moment of magic from stand-off Jake Duxbury to break down the well-organised home defence.

Stepping his man inside his own half, the 17-year-old raced to the Medics’ 22 and executed a perfectly-weighted kick which enabled left wing JJ O’Connell to collect the ball from a metre out and cross unopposed on 49 minutes.

Full back Jarrod Huss narrowly failed to add to his 14th-minute penalty success with the conversion attempt but the eight-point lead proved crucial.

Medics contributed greatly to a highly-entertaining game and threw everything at the Jenny Laners in the last 30 minutes.

However, Baildon’s miserly defence, which had conceded just nine tries in as many outings, repelled attack after attack.

Even after the harsh sin-binning of flanker Ben Newton on 55 minutes for not binding at the scrum, the visitors stood firm, though they had to survive a late scare when their line was finally breached in injury time.

The Medics ran the ball from their own 22 following the restart but were thwarted by a superb last-ditch tackle from outstanding centre Marcus Dracup. He not only prevented what would have been a match-winning try, he also forced a turnover just outside his team’s 22, enabling the Jenny Laners to put the ball dead and claim the spoils.

The win kept Baildon in second place, eight points behind leaders Old Rishworthians.