Curate's egg of a display by unbeaten Aire

AIREBOROUGH, buoyed by their hard-fought 9-5 home win against Northallerton and an excellent turnout at both midweek training sessions, travelled to Halifax in good spirits.

And the visitors' pack soon began asserting their dominance over their larger home eight, which gave scrum half Tom Holdsworth and his backs plenty of early opportunities to stretch their legs.

It took centre Oscar Edwards just ten minutes to cross the try line out wide following a smart break from Nick Jackson, Ryan Sample adding the conversion.

Aire doubled their lead shortly after with Johnny Mackey scoring from close range, with Sample again adding the additional two points from out wide.

The visitors should have kicked on to put the game out of sight but, for some reason, the Aire of early last season reared its ugly head – with ill-discipline and missed tackles gifting Halifax easy yards, which eventually resulted in an unconverted try.

Leading 14-5 at the interval, the second half was a mixed bag for Aireborough who, at times, were outstanding, showing good ball retention, racking up the phases and having support runners and making line breaks.

These factors resulted in tries for Lewis Eastwood, who converted a strong break from Richard Holmes, and substitute Chris Chapman, one of which was converted by Sample, who also slotted a penalty.

Aireborough, however, were also their own worst enemy at times.

They conceded two soft tries through poor tackling, and a lack of concentration and communication resulted in the squandering of two tries with the try line beckoning.

Aireborough, who are second in the table on points difference behind derby rivals Baildon, face sixth-placed Harrogate Pythons on Saturday at Nunroyd Park (3pm).