Manchester 24

Otley Saracens 20

Saracens, without a fixture, arranged a friendly at Manchester, one of their strongest opponents and with several players injured they took the opportunity to give some of their Colts senior experience.

Wingers Richard Leighton and Matt Walker moved into the centre with Colts Leon Clarke and Duick Young coming in. Peter Wright moved to fly-half with Matty Birch at scrum-half and Colt Kyle Sutcliffe made his debut in the second row.

Manchester came at Otley from the kick- off and they had them at sixes and sevens running up 17 points without reply. To their credit Otley stuck to their task and gradually got their game together and just before half-time reduced the arrears with a Peter Wright penalty.

Saracens came back strongly on the re-start and England schoolboy Ben Steele replaced Rob Lyons at hooker. Otley took play deep into the Manchester half with good support play and Peter Wright sold a superb dummy before accelerating under the posts and adding the conversion.

Peter Wright was just wide with a penalty shortly after but in the next attack Manchester got off-side again and Otley opted for a quick tap. The ball was moved quickly to Leon Clarke who won the race for the touchdown. The deficit was down to two points. Manchester rallied and after considerable pressure they scored a converted try to stretch the lead again.

Otley were not done and in their next attack the home side killed the ball but the resulting penalty was just wide. Keeping the pressure on Andrew Boyle made a strong run before linking with the support and Ryan Duckett joined the line from full -back to race over in the corner. Otley went all out for the winning score but Manchester held on.

Otley Viscounts 12

Morley 10

Viscounts took on Morley thirds on the Cross Green pitch and an entertaining game resulted. The younger Morley side used the wide pitch to try and run Viscounts about and they built up a ten point lead but Otley got to grips in the forwards to limit their possession.

They reduced the arrears with a Chris Anderson try converted by Chappell before leading try scorer Sam Burtonshaw powered over to give Viscounts a narrow win.

Viscounts then lost 27-7 to York who had the better of things in the first-half but Viscounts held them to a converted try. York stretched the lead before Sam Burtonshaw powered over with Jamie Chappell adding the conversion. In the closing stages the home sides pace told and they added a couple of tries.

Otley Tongans 43

Aireborough 3

IN the Sulzer Aire Wharfe Cup both sides had difficulty in completing their sides for an early kick-off but it was Aireborough who made the early running taking play to the Otley line. The Tongans' defence repelled several attacks and Aireborough had to be satisfied with a James Darkins penalty.

Tongans went to the other end and James Vyvyan picked up and drove over. Tim Westlake-Bryant then went over in the corner. In the final minutes of the half a good drive drew the defence in and scrum-half Steve Kershaw darted over. Will Foster converted all three tries to add to an early penalty to make it 24-3 at half-time.

In the second-half Aireborough tightened the game up with their big pack driving and mauling and fly-half James Darkins producing some good tactical kicking. In the final quarter fitness began to tell and Tongans ran in tries by James Vyvyan, Tim Westlake-Bryant and Will Foster, the latter adding two conversions. Otley play Skipton away in the quarter-final tonight, Thursday (6.30pm).