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Bees 38 Northallerton 19
Nick Patterson22 Feb - 12:07
Bill Marshall reports as the Best clock up a fourth win in succession
FOUR successive wins have thrust Bradford & Bingley firmly into the promotion mix in Counties Two Yorkshire.
With seven games left for the Bees, they sit third in the table, three points behind leaders Bridlington but four points ahead of fifth-placed Huddersfield Laund Hill, with fellow contenders Bridlington, Old Otliensians and Laund Hill having a game in hand on the Bees and Roundhegians.
Every game is important for this quintet as they vie for the two promotion places (although that might change as there are discussions about going back to 14 teams per division rather than 12), but some seem more important than others - for example, for the Bees, Saturday’s home match against Baildon.
The Jenny Laners may be best of the rest in sixth place on 36 points, but they did beat the Bees 26-17 in November in what was a horror show for the losers and they comfortably won both of their clashes last season by 48-3 (away) and 34-16 (at Wagon Lane).
After their 38-19 home win over Northallerton, the Bees’ Jim Nicholas said of the Baildon match: “It is a huge game. We are not going to be stupid and say that it is anything but, and we are looking forward to hosting them.
“It should draw a good crowd and we know that we got stung by them earlier in the season. We have watched the game back many times and we have seen what our mistakes were and we have addressed them.
“But we have had a fairly strong start to the season and we will just play our game and not get drawn into anything silly.
“We have been working on our discipline a lot, and behind the scenes there have been a lot of conversations with players and we haven’t been anything like that (a crucial lack of discipline) since that Baildon game.”
Nicholas added: “This season is night and day compared to what went before, but we are pretty much the same team.
“We haven’t recruited massively so it is still the same core of lads that come to training to build on things.
“It is unfortunate about the five-point deduction earlier in the season as we would comfortably be second in the ladder without it, but we still have a chance of promotion and we are happy to get down and dirty in the latter part of the season.”
In relatively balmy conditions, with the sun even shining at times, the Bees had quite a few players out of position against Northallerton - Nicholas was in the backs for example and Ben Hemsley was alongside him, with Ricky Palacio and Tom Dyson filling the half-back roles - but set off at a pace that the visitors could not match.
Nicholas was involved in early tries for debutant Leo Robinson and fellow winger Ryan Wilson, both being converted by full back Dom Walker, although there was confusion after the initial try when referee Glen Cockcroft blew for a successful conversion although neither touch judge raised their flags, the extra two points being belatedly added later in the half.
Walker went over himself after 24 minutes and converted for 21-0, and Hemsley scooted over on the half-hour, Walker again improving the tally.
Things changed, however, in the last 10 minutes of the half as Northallerton, who had 89 seasons of playing experience on their bench via Paul Dixon, Dan Luck and Doug Mulholland, hit back.
Fly half Jack Tart collected his own chip to score and convert in the 33rd minute, and centre Shayne Anderson bagged another solo try three minutes later, Tart’s kick making it 28-14.
The hosts lost Palacio to a facial injury 11 minutes into the second half, and good scrum pressure from Northallerton led to their third try in the 55th minute, No 8 Iain Swall touching down, but Tart missing the kick.
At 28-19 the contest was in the balance, but the Bees found their second wind and Nicholas scored the bonus-point try in the 62nd minute.
Bingley lost a line-out deep in the visitors’ half five minutes later, but got their fifth try in stoppage time via lock Joe Daley after good drives by skipper Luke Spauls and replacement Innocent Mazhambe.
Nicholas said: “We did have a few lads out of position, but we had been training with that in mind so that the 13 knew when he needed to do this and the 12 knew when he needed to do that, and the nine and 10 had been working on things in training too.
“It was interesting playing in the centre. It was good fun and I had a bit more space than I was used to, but we had great ball, we were strong in our line-outs and scrums and made some good metres.
“It was fantastic for Leo to score on his debut. He has such a good attitude, works really hard and is a welcome addition to the team and we look forward to him improving as he is only 18.
“It wasn’t worrying when Northallerton came back into it. They saw a gap in our back line and went straight through and then they started to chip and chase and played some good rugby in the 10 minutes that we switched off, but we re-grouped at half-time and went again.
“It was a matter of steadying the ship in the second half. We weren’t too fussed about pushing too hard as we knew that we were a couple of tries ahead.
“It was a matter of maintaining our composure, not doing anything too silly and giving too many penalties away, which has been an issue for us this season.
“We knew that if we kept the phases going we would get over the line.”
Baildon warmed up for Wagon Lane with a 50-10 home win over Halifax Vandals, where the Bees only won 16-13 on February 14.
With seven games left for the Bees, they sit third in the table, three points behind leaders Bridlington but four points ahead of fifth-placed Huddersfield Laund Hill, with fellow contenders Bridlington, Old Otliensians and Laund Hill having a game in hand on the Bees and Roundhegians.
Every game is important for this quintet as they vie for the two promotion places (although that might change as there are discussions about going back to 14 teams per division rather than 12), but some seem more important than others - for example, for the Bees, Saturday’s home match against Baildon.
The Jenny Laners may be best of the rest in sixth place on 36 points, but they did beat the Bees 26-17 in November in what was a horror show for the losers and they comfortably won both of their clashes last season by 48-3 (away) and 34-16 (at Wagon Lane).
After their 38-19 home win over Northallerton, the Bees’ Jim Nicholas said of the Baildon match: “It is a huge game. We are not going to be stupid and say that it is anything but, and we are looking forward to hosting them.
“It should draw a good crowd and we know that we got stung by them earlier in the season. We have watched the game back many times and we have seen what our mistakes were and we have addressed them.
“But we have had a fairly strong start to the season and we will just play our game and not get drawn into anything silly.
“We have been working on our discipline a lot, and behind the scenes there have been a lot of conversations with players and we haven’t been anything like that (a crucial lack of discipline) since that Baildon game.”
Nicholas added: “This season is night and day compared to what went before, but we are pretty much the same team.
“We haven’t recruited massively so it is still the same core of lads that come to training to build on things.
“It is unfortunate about the five-point deduction earlier in the season as we would comfortably be second in the ladder without it, but we still have a chance of promotion and we are happy to get down and dirty in the latter part of the season.”
In relatively balmy conditions, with the sun even shining at times, the Bees had quite a few players out of position against Northallerton - Nicholas was in the backs for example and Ben Hemsley was alongside him, with Ricky Palacio and Tom Dyson filling the half-back roles - but set off at a pace that the visitors could not match.
Nicholas was involved in early tries for debutant Leo Robinson and fellow winger Ryan Wilson, both being converted by full back Dom Walker, although there was confusion after the initial try when referee Glen Cockcroft blew for a successful conversion although neither touch judge raised their flags, the extra two points being belatedly added later in the half.
Walker went over himself after 24 minutes and converted for 21-0, and Hemsley scooted over on the half-hour, Walker again improving the tally.
Things changed, however, in the last 10 minutes of the half as Northallerton, who had 89 seasons of playing experience on their bench via Paul Dixon, Dan Luck and Doug Mulholland, hit back.
Fly half Jack Tart collected his own chip to score and convert in the 33rd minute, and centre Shayne Anderson bagged another solo try three minutes later, Tart’s kick making it 28-14.
The hosts lost Palacio to a facial injury 11 minutes into the second half, and good scrum pressure from Northallerton led to their third try in the 55th minute, No 8 Iain Swall touching down, but Tart missing the kick.
At 28-19 the contest was in the balance, but the Bees found their second wind and Nicholas scored the bonus-point try in the 62nd minute.
Bingley lost a line-out deep in the visitors’ half five minutes later, but got their fifth try in stoppage time via lock Joe Daley after good drives by skipper Luke Spauls and replacement Innocent Mazhambe.
Nicholas said: “We did have a few lads out of position, but we had been training with that in mind so that the 13 knew when he needed to do this and the 12 knew when he needed to do that, and the nine and 10 had been working on things in training too.
“It was interesting playing in the centre. It was good fun and I had a bit more space than I was used to, but we had great ball, we were strong in our line-outs and scrums and made some good metres.
“It was fantastic for Leo to score on his debut. He has such a good attitude, works really hard and is a welcome addition to the team and we look forward to him improving as he is only 18.
“It wasn’t worrying when Northallerton came back into it. They saw a gap in our back line and went straight through and then they started to chip and chase and played some good rugby in the 10 minutes that we switched off, but we re-grouped at half-time and went again.
“It was a matter of steadying the ship in the second half. We weren’t too fussed about pushing too hard as we knew that we were a couple of tries ahead.
“It was a matter of maintaining our composure, not doing anything too silly and giving too many penalties away, which has been an issue for us this season.
“We knew that if we kept the phases going we would get over the line.”
Baildon warmed up for Wagon Lane with a 50-10 home win over Halifax Vandals, where the Bees only won 16-13 on February 14.
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