Clayton 16 East Leeds 40

Clayton crashed to their first defeat of the season following a second half ‘no show’ in the Pennine League Division One clash against East Leeds at the Lidget Green Oval.

Scrum half Devon Gurney opened the hosts account when he produced a clever change of direction to scamper over 15 metres from the uprights, leaving stand-off Jack Bowman a simple conversion chance but he ballooned it well wide.

Full back Simon Giles tore through the Leeds defence to set up a golden opportunity that was wasted when the ball was shipped inside with a two-man overlap begging for what looked a certain try.

Then a deft sleight of hand from Gurney sent wingman Josh Belson racing clear down the flanks only to see him place a foot on the line to rule out his progress.

The visitors made it all square in controversial fashion when wingman Tom Bull took advantage of a blatant shepherd to reach the corner before they went 8-4 up when flanker Jim Gordan sprinted to the flag.

Their euphoria was short-lived however when a clever high restart enabled second row forward Matt Baldwin to outjump the rearguard and power over at the posts, leaving centre Ryan Wilkinson an easy conversion. Clayton’s dominance continued when a kick from the scrum bounced off an Easts defender directly into the arms of centre Kieran Baker, who raced to the whitewash and Wilkinson again made no mistake with the extras to establish what appeared to be a telling 16-8 half-time lead.

But East Leeds started the second stanza in great style when outstanding stand-off Nathan Conroy took advantage of confusion in the Clayton ranks to score a converted touchdown. The home cause suffered another blow when they allowed an innocuous kick to bounce, giving Gordon a gift for his brace.

With the slope in their favour, the Leeds side continued to dominate territorially and centre Jake Moss produced a simple dummy to increase the hosts' pain further.

Clayton hoped to gain some relief when Easts prop John Longbottom was given a yellow card for elbows in the tackle but their misery continued as they conceded a further trio of tries to end up well beaten, having failed to trouble the scoreboard in a calamitous second half.