Brighouse Rangers 32 Cutsyke Raiders 22

FULL back Karl Frankland revealed his attacking ability early on to put Brighouse Rangers on the path to an impressive Pennine League victory against Cutsyke Raiders in their Division One clash at Russell Way.

The Castleford visitors looked dangerous in the opening exchanges until Frankland joined the line to collect a splendid offload from stand-off Ben Drennan to sprint over and also add the extras.

Frankland's astute opportunism once again came to the fore shortly afterwards when he spotted the Raiders' lack of numbers on the blind-side to send wingman Sam Hardcastle in at the corner unopposed.

Brighouse made it 16-0 in as many minutes when hooker Troy Ambler sold a clever dummy to race clear and drew the full back to offload to supporting centre Jordon Sild, who had a clear route to the whitewash, leaving Frankland an easy conversion.

A bout of fisticuffs earned Rangers second-row forward Matty Bailey and opposite number Gareth Greenwood a spell in the sin-bin, before Cutsyke wingman Jason Banks intercepted a speculative pass to reduce the arrears.

Rangers could do little to prevent the visitors making further inroads when centre Joe Turton danced into a gap and put a raking kick to the line that enabled scrum half Gavin Lightowler to win the race and touch down. He tagged on his second conversion to close the half at 16-12.

Brighouse quickly scuppered any thoughts of a further comeback in the second half when a series of quick plays put wingman Ben Wrightson over in the corner.

A superlative slow dummy, followed by a peach of a pass, from scrum half Jamie Barraclough put Frankland through for his brace, to which he made sure of a full reward with the boot.

Yet the stubborn Castleford outfit refused to bow out of the contest gracefully, with packman Steve Harris reaching the chalk after a clever interchange on the flank.

Rangers efficiently secured the spoils when Sild broke the line in a one-to-one to power to the side of the uprights for his second try, leaving Frankland to complete their tally and lift his side level on points with Cutsyke in joint-second place.

But it was the visitors who had the final say in the gathering gloom when full back Jake Dickinson crossed for a converted consolation effort at the final whistle.