Yorkshire Division Three: Sheffield Medicals 15 Baildon 19

RELEGATED Baildon may be ruing missed opportunities and poor form earlier in the season but they have certainly gone down with a bang, rather than a whimper.

Having won two of their first 13 fixtures in Yorkshire Division Three, they have won six of their final 13, but failed to get the four-try bonus point that would have put the pressure on Skipton, who would still have needed a point from their final two matches to be safe.

As it happened, Skipton got their bonus-point try late on at promoted Old Otliensians to send the Jenny Laners down.

Even coming off a six-try win at Hemsworth, few neutral observers gave Baildon any hope of winning at Sheffield Medicals, let alone securing a four-try bonus point.

The mandatory rest for concussed scrum half Ollie Williams didn't help Baildon's cause, but they dominated the set-piece, securing their line-out ball and pinching or disrupting a decent share of opposition ball through John Pickersgill, Andy Magee and Zack Orrell.

However, it was in the scrummage where the visitors reigned supreme, with the visiting front row of Adam Hewitt, Matty Dixon and Joe Robinson rendering them incapable of maintaining a straight push.

The replacement front row of Tom Massey, Guy Price and Baildon president's player of the season Will Tomlinson proved no less destructive later in the game.

However, Medics scored first via a penalty after a Baildon tackler failing to release, but the visitors were playing fluent rugby.

They went through eight phases, creating gaps that Harrison Strauss exploited with a typically explosive line break. Having made the break and finding himself in space, he slowed down to await a support runner before drawing the last defender and putting his brother Luke over under the sticks for Matty Robinson to convert.

Medics responded with some fluent rugby of their own, and brilliant off-loading out of the tackle brought them a try in the corner.

While the hosts were conceding scrum penalties, Baildon were being penalised at the breakdown, but Medics could not take advantage, being held up over the line and then losing the scrum against the head.

Baildon then took advantage of a home player being yellow carded for a deliberate knock on, with Dan Cookson picking up from the base of a scrum and finding space before Robbie Hill took up the attack.

He then exchanged passes with Luke Strauss to score himself, with Matty Robinson's conversion putting them 14-8 ahead.

The visitors, who were halfway to that precious bonus point, again showed promise in the second half and created a 5-2 overlap.

However, the looped pass was cynically swiped away one handed, leading to another Medics sin-binning but denying the try-scoring opportunity.

Baildon eventually scored when Josh Strauss pounced on a ball that popped out from a retreating Medics scrum.

Within sight of the bonus point, however, the visitors wilted slightly under the pressure, despite Medics' front row being given a general warning about not pushing straight in the scrums.

Baildon were given a penalty at an attacking five-metre scrum, but knocked on after tapping when taking another scrum might have been a better option, which may have brought not only a try but another yellow card.

Medics were not done, however, and scored a converted try under the posts and a penalty at the restart for foul play by Baildon in the act of Medics scoring.

When the final whistle was sounded by referee Andy Morton, neither side were in celebratory mood, Medics because they had lost and Baildon because they had failed to secure that bonus point.