Leyland Warriors 26 - Bold Miners 18

A scrappy game with little flow to it, in which a young Leyland side did well to grind out a win.

The Warriors showed some good early promise and despite early injuries to Dempsey, Lonsdale and Boles, they were dominating both position and territory. Rather against the run of play, a Leyland error gifted good field position to Miners and they squeezed over from dummy half to take the lead, 0-6.

Building patiently, Leyland regained control and Liam Deans powered over for his first try of the season, with Bailey Locke converting, 6-6. The Warriors then took the lead for the first time in the game when Sam White broke through the Bold kick chase and raced away from the cover defence for a great solo try from inside his own half, Locke adding the extras, 12-6.

The second half in the same vein as the first, with a lot of disruption and no fluency to the match, with consecutive sets of six tackles rarely going without a stoppage. A succession of penalties and repeat sets saw Bold cross out wide and level the scores, 12-12.

With the game threatening to boil over, Leyland managed their frustrations well and concentrated on building pressure and were well rewarded when some slick handling from Andy Robinson and Locke saw Jamie Joyce cross out wide, 16-12.

Leyland were well on top when Si Dempsey spun out of the tackles to crash over and Locke's conversion gave the Warriors some daylight, 22-12. Undaunted, a resilient Bold side dragged themselves back into the game with a converted try, 22-18 with a quarter of an hour to play.

The game continued to punctuated by ill discipline and Lock added two further penalties as Leyland took every opportunity to reduce the risk of the game breaking down further, with the match ending 26-18. Not a polished performance by any means but Leyland maintained their composure in a difficult game and were worthy winners.

Team: Andy Robinson, Jamie Joyce, Joe Ainscough, John Boles, Sam White, Dan Horridge, Declan Roberts, Si Dempsey, Connor White, Liam Deans, Callum Brown, Chris Rand, Rob Lonsdale, Bailey Locke, Simon Wrigley, Peter Heatley, Alex Green.