North One East: Penrith 66 Bradford & Bingley 17

BRADFORD & Bingley conceded over 60 points for a second successive away game and, as a result, slipped a place to sixth in the table.

At the start of the season, everyone associated with the Wagon Lane club would have been delighted with sixth, but Martin Whitcombe's men could easily have been challenging for promotion if they could have kept their pre-Christmas run of form going.

Although the Bees conceded ten tries in this fixture and some of their defensive efforts were questionable, Whitcombe's side finished the game with only 12 on the field after a string of injuries.

However, the whole nature of the game hinged on the 33rd-minute dismissal of Richard Tafa.

At that point, the score was 14-14 and the game was a fine advertisement for open, running rugby, which both sides aspire to play.

The Bees lost Sam White to a yellow card and then saw Tafa receive his marching orders after an off-the-ball incident involving two or three Penrith players.

The home side immediately capitalised on their numerical advantage and bagged two scores before the Bees were back up to 14.

Ryan Wilson and Ryan Wederell had been Bradford & Bingley's scorers in the opening quarter, with Wederell's effort putting the visitors in front for a time.

Then came the yellow and red cards, which thoroughly destabilised the Bees and allowed the home side to go in at half-time 26-14 ahead.

With the second half in front of the visitors, it was always going to be difficult to keep a side as good as Penrith at bay for the whole 40 minutes, and the home side wasted little time in galloping over for two scores, which completely took the wind out of the Bees defence.

With all the bench on the field, an injury to White meant that Bradford & Bingley were forced to lose another player to compensate for the game going to uncontested scrums, and 12 men were never going to stop the home side from piling on the points.

The Bees finish their season at home against Durham City in a week and a half and will hope that a win can lift them back over Driffield, who host Morpeth, for a fifth-placed finish.