Yorkshire Division Three: Baildon 5 Knottingley 12

THIS match was then delayed for half an hour after a serious injury to Baildon prop Adam Hewitt in the 62nd minute.

It looked like time might be called by referee Dan Boddy, but once Hewitt was on the spinal board, after Knottingley's head coach Mark Wilson had rushed on to immobilise Hewitt's neck until a neck brace was fitted, Hewitt urged the paramedics to get him into the ambulance so that the game could resume.

Fortunately, the air ambulance, which attended, was not needed, but they deserve praise as do the paramedic first responder and ambulance crew.

Hewitt's scan was later all clear.

Baildon showed good spirit, but let too many errors slip into their game in the last ten metres.

With Pete Lowth back at prop and Joe Robinson moving to hooker, the hosts had the makings of a stronger platform than in recent weeks.

A penalty took the visitors deep into home territory and, although they won the line-out, they seemed to be going backwards until full back Paul Rockett took a horrible ball before waltzing through to score a try which was converted.

After Dan Fletcher was bundled into touch in the right corner a few metres short in a home raid, and then Luke Strauss was foiled in the opposite corner after good work by Matty Robinson and Dan Cookson.

The tackle was high, however, earning Baildon a penalty only for the maul to be held up short after Danny Pollard had taken the line-out ball, 15 minutes of home pressure yielding nothing.

Baildon, who were suffering from white-line fever, then found themselves playing 14 men as a visitor disagreed with the referee's decision that a visitor was ahead of their kicker.

The home side then played their best rugby of the match, with Robbie Hill, JJ O’Connell, Cookson, Harrison Strauss and Will Tomlinson all being involved, only for the last pass to Fletcher being ruled forward.

Despite being a man light, Knottingley then stole a line-out for their backs to show their class, Sean Simpson scoring a try which made Baildon's heads go down after so much pressure for no reward.

The hosts ten crossed the visitors' line, only to drop the ball, and subsequent visits to Knottingley's 22 were stymied by the hosts being offside.

Knottingley then dropped the ball over the Baildon line after good harrying by Luke Strauss.

However, the home side finally got on the scoreboard after turning over ball, with Luke Strauss, Pollard, Hewitt, Josh Strauss and James Fox all making yards before creating a three-to-one overlap on the left wing, Hill and Matty Robinson drawing the last defender for O'Connell to score in the corner.

The only other things of note were that Knottingley missed a shot on goal and Fletcher was again pushed into touch.