North One East: Percy Park 65 Bradford & Bingley 15

WITH 18 senior players declaring themselves unavailable for this trip to the north east, Bradford & Bingley's director of rugby Martin Whitcombe was forced to call on three more teenagers for their senior debuts.

He also pressed physio Jake Lockwood into service on the wing outside flanker Max Mountain, who took the field as an emergency outside centre. 

This still left the Bees a man short on the bench, with only 17 players emerging from the changing rooms.

Whitcombe has used 41 different players in this campaign, but has rarely ever been able to select a starting XV from strength as the number of players unavailable every week has meant that the side has been cobbled together on a Saturday morning, rather selected on merit during the week.

Teenagers Harry Taylor, Josh Lawn and Joe Daley all put in a commendable shift, with Lawn in particular looking like a great find for the Wagon Lane club. 

The efforts of the entire match-day squad were not reflected by the scoreline as two interception tries for the home side reversed promising field positions for the Bees and put the game well out of reach just before the break. 

The game did not open well for the Yorkshire side as Percy Park were on the scoreboard within the first minute, and extended their lead to 12-0  with a second score on eight minutes.

Some parity was restored as Bees skipper and man of the match Tom Booth showed some neat footwork to dance to the line.

With no recognised kicker in the line up, the Bees were always going to struggle with their kicking game, and when Richard Tafa felt a tweak in his hamstring, their options were further reduced and the ball was either going to stay with the forwards or be kept in hand by the makeshift backline.

This option appeared to be working well for the visitors as some slick handling put Ryan Wilson over for a well-taken score.

With the score at 17-10, the game now seemed finely balanced, and with half-time approaching, it seemed that Whitcombe's cobbled-together side was doing well and could perhaps regroup to take the game to Percy Park in the second half.

However, that notion was swiftly dispelled as the home side took the game by the scruff of the neck and ran in four tries either side of the break before Richard Hughes was able to roll off the back of a maul to grab a third try for the Bees in the 50th minute.

The visitors still had ambitions of getting another try on the board to claim a losing bonus point, but were unable to stem the tide of points for the home side, who ultimately ran in 11 tries, five of which were converted.