Yorkshire Division One: Yarnbury 10 Bradford Salem 32

BRADFORD Salem gained five valuable league points at derby rivals Yarnbury to lift them up to seventh place.

On an unusually firm pitch at Brownberrie Lane, Salem were first on the scoreboard when, after five minutes, full back Danny Belcher struck a penalty over off an upright.

The visitors then committed a number of errors, which enabled Yarnbury to take a 5-3 lead as some uncharacteristically weak defence gifted the home side a try when prop Lewis Atha hit a excellent line to score off a pop pass on the opposition 22.

Ten minutes later, however, Salem were back in front when swift handling in the backs put winger Ryan Smith clear on the right, and supporting centre Max Trueman took an inside pass to score a fine try on his first-team debut, with Belcher adding the extras to put the visitors 10-5 ahead.

Salem were now on top and increased their lead to 18-5 when skipper and No 8 Christian Baines drove over following a catch and drive.

The Heaton side should have gone further ahead just before half-time but, after excellent runs from Belcher and Trueman, centre Dean Pearce was hauled down agonisingly short of the line.

In the 49th minute, the visitors scored again when flanker Callum Manchester scored after good runs from Trueman, Smith and Belcher, with the latter's conversion making it 25-5.

Salem were now in search of a four-try bonus point but their cause wasn't helped when Smith was sin-binned for a clumsy high cover tackle.

Things got worse for the Bradford side when referee Chris Johnson, who was on exchange from the Notts, Lincs and Derbyshire Society, had little option but to issue replacement flanker Conor Wood with a red card for a dangerous, albeit non-malicious tackle.

With ten minutes left, Yarnbury made their one-man advantage count when Joe Bennett scored from a pushover to reduce the arrears to 25-10.

However, Salem finished the game in style as Trueman showed great acceleration to score his second try, once again improved by Belcher, to seal a bonus-point 32-10 victory.