OLD Grovians travelled to Northallerton for their third consecutive away game of the season.

Their opponents had won both of their opening games with try bonus points and they did so again, easily beating the Bradford side 43-15.

But the opening twenty minutes were dominated by Grovians, as they attacked down the hill.

An early penalty by Louis Anderson was followed by a Max Kennedy try in the left hand corner.

On 22 minutes, Northallerton won a scrum penalty as their pack began to take a stranglehold on the set-piece.

From the resulting lineout, they forced their way over and the conversion pulled it back to 8-7.

Anderson made a fine break into the Northallerton half and only an ankle tap prevented him sprinting away to score. Ben Carpenter was then held up short of the line.

But on 25 minutes, Anderson cut a line through the Northallerton defence to score a try, which he converted to give Grovians a 15-7 lead.

From the restart however, Northallerton struck back with a try on the left, exposing the lack of covering defenders.

Just on the stroke of half-time, the big Northallerton forwards again made ground and the right winger dived over.

With other points scored in that late burst, Old Grovians were suddenly trailing 26-15 at the break, having had the lead 10 minutes earlier.

The second half saw Northallerton dominate the set-piece with the Grovians scrum being pushed off their own ball.

Missed tackles on 46 minutes gave Northallerton their try bonus point and on 68 minutes they scored again when their scrum pushed Grovians over their own line.

In the dying minutes, visiting winger George Butler kicked ahead, but in trying to pick up just short of the line, he knocked on, meaning his side could not register one last consolation score.

Grovians coach Andy Hinchliffe said: “It was another spirited performance, but it was a deserved win for the home team.

“Northallerton made good decisions when clearing their lines, and though both teams created a similar number of scoring opportunities, crucially, they took their chances.

“You cannot miss five or six try scoring opportunities and turnover possession in your own 22 that many times like we did.

“We gifted momentum to a team who did not need to be asked twice, so it's something I've asked our players to reflect on and learn from.”