AIREBOROUGH returned to winning ways on Saturday, grinding out a tricky 21-15 win against Leeds Modernians at Nunroyd Park.

From the kick-off, it was clear Mods, bottom of Yorkshire Three, were up for the game as they came firing out the blocks, scoring a converted try after sustained pressure.

From the restart, Aire exerted good pressure on Mods and they found themselves unable to exit their own half. Eventually the pressure told and Aire forced a kickable penalty for Nick Holdsworth to make it 7-3. He slotted in a second penalty to make it 7-6.

With the breeze in Aire’s favour, intelligent kicking kept Mods trapped in their own half. Eventually, Aire won a penalty and from the resulting five metre line-out, got the drive on. Unfortunately, the ball was held up in the maul resulting in a Mods scrum. However, the Aire front row turned on the power to push Mods off their own ball. The loose ball from the scrum was picked up by Mikey Dolan, who crashed over for a try well converted by Holdsworth.

Mods got back in the game when they picked a loose ball from a mis-fielded kick and ran in an unconverted try to make it 13-12 at half-time.

The second-half started well for Aire, and Holdsworth converted a penalty to extended the lead to 16-12.

Mods forced a penalty of their own to make it a one-point game again.

After turning down a kickable penalty, Aire nudged it into the corner and their pack mauled their way a metre from the line, and Simon Hill bashed his way over for an unconverted try to secure a 21-15 win.