WIBSEY failed to score for the first time in 30 league matches as they were beaten 27-0 at Leeds Corinthians in Yorkshire Division Four North West.

“It wasn’t for the lack of trying and we didn’t play that badly,” admitted the visitors’ manager Steve Brooke.

“Kyle Carter and our man of the match James Sawyer (pictured) did their damnedest at nine and 15 – but it is just that everything we tried, Corinthians seemed to know what we were doing and there was no way through.”

Wibsey travelled with a strong squad, and had a bench that included new signing Nathan Broadbent, Brad Wright and Dan Hartley, but their plan to rotate their front row came unstuck as early as the second minute.

Brooke explained: “Luke Wilson accidentally elbowed Andy Rose and split his eye, so Dan Hartley had to come on and he is only a 20-minute man.”

However, although third-placed Corinthians scored three tries (fifth, 31st and 36th minutes) in the first half, when they had the advantage of a slight wind, none of those tries were converted and their kicker also missed a penalty in the 26th minute.

Brooke said: “We thought that we were still in it at half-time, especially if we scored a couple of early tries, but it never happened and Corinthians added further tries in the 51st and 76th minutes, the last of which was converted.”

The game went to uncontested scrums when Hartley suffered a hamstring injury but that also meant that Wibsey had to take a player off, leaving them with 14 against the hosts’ 15.

The last time that Wibsey failed to score was on September 26 in 2015, when visitors Knaresborough won 3-0.

Brooke recalled: “Rob Greenwood had a ‘Robshaw moment’ and we went for a try that would have won it but knocked on, when a kick at goal would have earned us a draw.”