Yorkshire Division Three: Goole 49 Baildon 17

GOOLE have put in a lot of hard work on their pitch as it used to resemble mudflats on the Humber but is now firmer underfoot and suited to running rugby.

Despite Baildon having some early pressure, chiefly via the powerful Matt Withers, the visitors could not capitalise as their backs made too many handling errors due to cold hands.

Goole were first on the board when Rhys Moore put Tom Brignall away, who scored in the left corner, and the latter was soon over again, with the try this time being converted.

The visitors' pack, already dominant in the scrum, now began to assert themselves in the loose, and it was from a retreating Goole scrum that Baildon's JJ O'Connell hacked the ball on, showing off his footballing skills that had been apparent last saeason when he was playing for Baildon Trinity Athletic by dribbling the length of the field before diving on the loose ball between the posts. 

His apparently easy conversion firstly pinged off the left-hand post onto the right-hand post before bouncing out.

But Goole were then back on the attack, Moore putting in Brignall for his hat-trick before twice capitalising on turnover ball to score himself and make it 29-5 by half-time. 

Dave Hemming (facial knock) was replaced during the interval by player-coach Adam Falkner, who went to scrum half, with Robbie Hill moving to the wing.

Falkner controlled proceedings with authority, and it was his delicious long pass to the right which outfoxed the home defence, allowing Ali Beaumont to score in the corner, O'Connell converting superbly from the touchline.  

However, another error then led to Lewis Sugden doing the legwork to put Moore over for his third try and, playing like men possessed, Moore then scored another try that was converted, making the score 41-12.

Having escaped conceding a length-of-the-field try from turnover ball on a forward pass ruiling, Baildon exerted more pressure and a Goole prop was sin-binned, leading to uncontested scrums for ten minutes, which took away the visitors' main weapon. 

Will Turnbull scored Goole's final try in this period but, when contested scrums resumed, Baildon were awarded a penalty try.

Having missed the drop-kicked conversion, the visitors then ran out of time to score a fourth try and secure a bonus point.