Yorkshire Division One: Beverley 30 Bradford Salem 24

FOR the second week in succession, Bradford Salem travelled to East Yorkshire and had to be content with a losing bonus point - this time at Beverley.

Despite the coach journey, the visitors started positively and put some good phases together deep in their opponent's 22.

However, they were then hit by a sucker punch as, with their first taste of possession, Beverley launched an attack from virtually their own line and some uncharacteristicly weak defending from Salem allowed the hosts to score a long-range try, although there was more than a suspicion that the try-scoring pass was forward.

Then, straight from the restart, Beverley extended their lead as a huge gap in Salem's midfield defence resulted in try to give the hosts a 14-point lead after only six minutes.

Salem were on the rack but Beverley were perhaps guilty of over-confidence as they twice elected to run the ball rather than take three points, and the visitors somehow managed to keep their line intact.

As the game went on, Salem began to find their feet and Beverley had to be content with a penalty to give them a 17-0 advantage at the break.

Salem suffered two major blows either side of half-time as referee Kevin Weston firstly gave full back Danny Belcher a yellow card for not using his arms in a tackle, and then No 8 Christian Baines joined him in the sin bin for a swinging arm.

With Salem down to 13 men, the home side took full advantage as they scored from a counter-attack to give them a healthy 24-0 lead.

Once they were restored to a full complement, Salem started to raise their game, and they were given a glimmer of hope when winger Nick Fontaine scored from an excellent turnover by replacement Andy Bennett, Belcher adding the extras to reduce the arrears to 24-7.

The Bradford side were suddenly in the ascendancy, and good recycled ball resulted in a try for centre Harry Hall again, improved by Belcher to bring the scoreline to 24-14.

Salem were now playing with renewed hope and, after a 40-metre break from open-side flanker Ethan Perkins, good handling in the backs allowed Hall to score his second try, Belcher adding the conversion to get the visitors back to within three points at 24-21.

Unfortunately, Salem were unable to turn the screw in the final quarter and Beverley kicked two penalties to put them nine points clear.

However, the Heaton side never gave up and a Belcher penalty with the last kick of the game earned them a deserved losing bonus point as Beverley ran out 30-24 winners.