Sheffield 35, Bradford Salem 6

Bradford Salem slipped to a third successsive defeat in Yorkshire Division One yesterday but it was a much-improved performance against high-flying Sheffield at Abbeydale Park.

Salem’s gamble to play John Bradbury, normally a prop, at hooker seemed to pay off as the Bradford side dominated the scrums in the opening exchanges. However, despite having the lion’s share of possession in the first quarter, Salem went behind 7-0 when Sheffield skipper and No 8 Andy Kelly was in support of a sweeping handling move to score in the left corner, fly half Donal Collins landing the conversion from the touchline.

Collins increased the home side’s advantage to ten points with a well-struck penalty but Salem centre Jonny Robinson responded with a penalty to bring the scoreline to 10-3.

Collins and Robinson then traded penalties to give a scoreline of 13-6 at the break but Salem were confident of turning things round in the second half with the elements slightly in their favour.

However, virtually straight from the restart, the Heaton side were dealt a cruel blow when Collins’ intended kick to touch settled an inch short of the Salem line.

Full back Amesh Ahir, who expected the ball to cross the line for a 22 drop-out, was forced to pick up and offload to scrum half Ian Woodwiss but his attempted clearance kick was charged down, gifting the home side a try out of nothing.

Although Collins missed the difficult conversion, his third sucessful penalty took the home side into a 21-6 lead.

Salem’s cause wasn’t helped by the fact that three players - Sam Leach, Bradbury and Richard Langhorn - spent ten minutes in the sin-bin, and the handicap of being down to 14 men for 30 minutes took it’s toll. Sheffield exerted increasing pressure in the final 15 minutes and they were rewarded with two further converted tries to earn themselves a bonus point and seal a 35-6 victory.