Yorkshire Division Three: Baildon 22 Aireborough 18

BAILDON completed the double over derby rivals Aireborough but both matches have been hard fought.

With stalwarts James Fox, Sam Robinson and Tom Peel unavailable, Baildon once more had to juggle their forward options to demonstrate strength in depth.

Baildon, via their youthful front row of Adam Hewitt, Matty Dixon and Joe Robinson, had the edge in the scrums, but their first try came from an overthrown home line-out that was tidied up by Harrison Strauss, Matt Withers powering through Aire's midfield via a combination of strength and guile to score under the posts, with JJ O'Connell adding the conversion.

Aireborough then paid a high price for backchat, the referee reversing a penalty which later culminated in O'Connell having a successful shot at goal.

Baildon's defensive press then led to O'Connell intercepting 40 metres out to run in a try under the posts and convert.

A Baildon knock on, compounded by an offside decision, led to Aireborough kicking a penalty.

However, Baildon then had a period of ascendancy, with Matty Robinson being pushed into touch five metres out, Harrison Strauss being disallowed a try from a disrupted Aireborough scrum and Dan Cookson twice being held up over the line.

The visitors began to infringe in their 22, leading to a player being yellow carded and, despite then knocking on, Baildon disrupted another home scrum for Danny Pollard to get his arms free in a tackle and put O'Connell over.

Leading 22-3 at half-time, Baildon were mindful that the only way they could lose this game into the wind was to lose their discipline.

For once, Aireborough got a nudge in the scrum and capitalised, scoring in the corner and adding a fine conversion.

Pollard was then sin-binned for catching an opponent across the nose with an outstretched arm, and the game itself became niggly as players tired.

But Aire then scored a fine try, moving the ball right and then left to create the necessary gap, and Baildon, now only leading 22-15, got the jitters, kicking poorly out of defence, conceding a penalty for an early push at their own scrum and, worst of all, having a player pick the ball up when offside after a team-mate had knocked on.

Aireborough kicked that penalty to narrow the gap to four points, but Baildon held their nerve to hand O'Connell victory in his last home match before a year in Australia.