BAILDON are finally starting to see the results their performances have warranted following a fairly stop start opening to the campaign.

Head coach, Jake Duxbury, spoke of his delight with his side’s performances in recent weeks, but admitted the smallest of margins were costing his side a victory.

But the last two fixtures have seen Baildon pick up two valuable wins, with the latest coming last Saturday away at Ripon in a 17-14 scoreline.

And Duxbury is delighted with his squad’s change in fortunes, he said: “It’s been great. By all accounts, we have come up against a couple of teams who had depleted squads based on availability.

“But it’s nice to finally see us put a full 80-minute performance in whilst grinding out the wins too. It’s much better than putting in a great performance for only 40 minutes.

“We are now seeing massive improvements week by week. We played Thornensians two weeks ago and it was one of them typical days at Baildon where the wind was blowing, the rain was pouring and it was a good test to see how much the lads wanted it.

“They passed that with flying colours that day and showed real determination and grit to put them (Thornensians) to the sword.

“We then faced Ripon away from home and it was completely the opposite. We showed another side of our game and played some outstanding rugby.

“We played the game in the right way in the second half too because the game was much closer than it should have been.

“We had numerous chances in the first half to kill the game off, but we didn’t but we showed great game management to protect our lead in the final 20 minutes of the game. It’s part and parcel of rugby and you have to show your quality in a number of areas, including game management.”

Baildon will be hoping to make it three wins on the bounce this weekend as they return to action at home to high-flying Wetherby on Saturday.

Wetherby are currently sat in third place in the table’s standings and Duxbury was under no illusions of the task his side will face.

He said: “We are on a good run and we are growing with confidence, but this will be no easy game. I class Wetherby as one of the big three sides in this division and I am fully aware of the challenges my side will face.

“It will be a great test for my young side and a good performance is what I’m after. It will hopefully set down a marker to the rest of the league if we show up and perform against one of the league’s best sides. They are a physical and big side and we expect nothing more than a battle against Wetherby. They are also on the back of a defeat so they will be hungry to bounce back."

“We need to show what we can do and hopefully the home advantage may help us on our way. It’s always a tough place to go (Baildon) so we will make it as difficult as possible for them.”