Yorkshire Division One: Bradford Salem 17 Old Brodleians 26

BRADFORD Salem's dismal run continued as they went down to a derby defeat and had two men dismissed late on.

Ironically, Salem made their best start of the season as, straight from the kick-off, some punishing runs from prop Conor Wood, second-rower Ryan McKessar and No 8 Chad Bain put them deep into opposition territory.

Then, after several phases of recycled position, centre Harry Hall sliced through Brods' midfield defence' and showed good footwork to score under the posts, full back Danny Belcher adding the simple conversion to give the hosts an early 7-0 lead.

Unfortunately, however, Salem immediately lost the initiative as, from the restart, scrum half Matt Child tried to collect a ball he should have left and the visitors were awarded a five-metre scrum.

To make matters worse, open-side flanker Ali Veitch was guilty of entering a maul from an offside position, and referee Harry Walbaum rather harshly sent him to the sin-bin.

Down to seven men, Salem's pack came under even more pressure at the ensuing scrum, and, when Salem collapsed an attempted pushover, Walbaum had no option but to award a penalty try to the visitors to bring the scores level.

Brods soon extended their lead when Salem fly half Matt Booth's speculative pass was intercepted by Simanu Tusiga, and the big New Zealand winger raced 60 metres to score a fine individual try, improved by full back Matt Hoyle to make it 14-7.

The visitors should have gone further ahead as swift handling created a huge overlap on the left, but Tusiga went from hero to villain as he inexplicably dropped the ball in the act of scoring.

However, this reprieve for Salem proved short-lived as Brods scored from a driving maul to give them a healthy 21-7 advantage.

The hosts hit back five minutes later when, after a period of pressure on their opponent's line, Wood powered his way over from close range for a try that was improved by Belcher to make the score 21-14.

Salem then got back to within four points, courtesy of a Belcher penalty, and had the opportunity to reduce the arrears further after they were awarded another penalty.

However, despite this being well within Belcher's range, flanker Sam Savage elected to take a quick tap, only to be penalised for not releasing.

The second half developed into a bit of an arm wrestle, and was stalemated for 30 minutes.

With time ticking away, Salem had one last chance to steal a win but Bain lost possession, which allowed Brods to clear downfield.

Things then went steadily downhill for Salem as firstly replacement prop Adam Hewitt was sent off for retaliation following a punch-up and then, in the final play, Booth's attempted looped pass to winger Ryan Smith on his own line was intercepted by centre Liam Scott to gift Brods a try.

Booth then reacted angrily to his error and was dismissed for head-butting.