Thornensians 16, Baildon 6 A well-organised and tenacious defence which has only conceded ten tries in eight games wasn’t quite enough to see the Jenny Laners through a tight game.

Playing in front of a big partisan home crowd, Baildon’s lighter players tackled manfully and competed ferociously for every loose ball but could not find enough invention and lacked decisive pace when try scoring opportunities presented themselves.

Stand-off Andy Patchett’s well-struck long range penalties on 22 and 32 minutes were cancelled out by his opposite number’s similar efforts on 7 and 29 minutes to put the score at six apiece at half-time and, despite defending for long periods of the first half, Baildon’s higher work-rate and fitness were beginning to frustrate the home side, who had dominated long periods of the first half.

The home side’s frustration began to show early in the second half as Baildon’s better control at the set piece, particularly at the line-out where flanker Jonny Picken caught superbly began to reap dividends. It gave the Jenny Laners the opportunity to move the ball wide to winger Richard Kingham, who carried the ball strongly several times and linked up well with full-back JJ O’Connell, only for the home side’s cover defence to do just enough to prevent the pair from breaking free.

Just as Baildon started to threaten to take control of the game their chances were dealt a severe blow with the sin-binning of No 8 Matt Williams, who was sent from the field for allegedly shoulder-charging an opponent in the act of picking up the ball on 52 minutes.

This proved to be the turning point of the match with Thornensians taking full advantage of the extra man with a converted try on 58 minutes, leaving Baildon having to score twice in the final quarter to take anything from the game.

Despite a late rally from the Jenny Laners they couldn’t find a way through and when centre Nicky Lister’s penalty effort drifted narrowly wide in the final seconds to deny them a losing bonus point, Baildon knew it just wasn’t to be their day.