Yorkshire Division One: Scarborough 26 Bradford Salem 10

BRADFORD Salem returned empty handed from their trip to the east coast as a three-try blitz by Scarborough straight after half-time put the hosts out of reach.

Salem, playing into a cold wind in the first half, did well to contain their opponents, although the home side did take an early 3-0 lead, courtesy of a penalty from full back and skipper Tom Ratcliffe.

After 20 minutes, Scarborough almost scored from a charge down, but, when referee Glen Cockroft surprisingly gave the Seasiders a five-metre scrum rather than Salem a 22 drop-out, Kiwi No 8 Isaac Faamau drove over from a pushover to give the hosts an 8-0 lead.

With five minutes of the half remaining, Salem hit back as centre Sam Savage broke through from a quick tap penalty, and his well-timed pass to supporting full back Danny Belcher resulted in a try in the right corner, which reduced the arrears to 8-5 at the break.

With the elements now in their favour, Salem were confident of causing an upset.

However, Scarborough had other ideas as they seemed to emerge a completely different side.

Within minutes of the restart, the home side scored three tries to effectively end the contest.

Firstly, giant Kiwi prop Wesley Langkilde, who had come on as a replacement, swatted off Salem scrum half Ian Woodwiss on a bullocking run to the line.

Moments later, the home side scored from a quick tap penalty, Salem's woes being compounded as their open-side flanker and captain Jamie Booth was sin-binned for a high shot.

Things got even worse for the Bradford side, as, on the very next play, Scarborough fly half Tomasz Chadwick took advantage of some weak Salem defending and raced 50 metres to score an excellent solo try to give the home side a healthy 23-5 lead.

A second penalty from Ratcliffe made it 26-5 before the hosts made a hash of a speculative kick from Woodwiss, which gifted back-rower Dan Snowden a consolation try.