Bradford & Bingley 47 Northern 0

BRADFORD & Bingley put together their best performance of the season, running seven tries past their visitors from the north east.

Northern began the game brightly and were camped on the Bees line for much of the opening ten minutes, and it was only some superb defence from the home side which kept them out.

After 13 minutes, the whole nature of the game changed as the hosts repelled another Northern surge and, within a minute, the home side went the full length of the field, with skipper Brett Mitchell crashing over from a line-out for Richard Scull to add the extras.

It took a further 13 minutes for the home side to improve their lead but the try was one of the scores of the season as Luke Peacock set off on a run from out wide on the right and then skipped around four or five defenders to dot down near the posts.

Scull added the conversion, and three minutes later scored the next five-pointer as Mitchell charged to the corner and popped the ball up for Scull to collect and burrow over.

Four minutes later, the Bees had their four-try bonus point as Shaun Driver timed his pass exquisitely to put Mitchell over for his second try.

The sides turned round at 26-0 and the half-time break seemed to briefly rouse the visitors. Northern threatening the Bees line a couple of times before the Wagon Lane side picked up the pace and took command again.

Lewis Brook was the first to capitalise and charged over from a scrum near the visitors’ line after 53 minutes.

Nine minutes later, Scull reached the whitewash after the Bees pack drove their opponents back from a scrum, leaving the scrum half with a clear run to the line for his second try of the afternoon.

At 40-0, the Wagon Lane crowd probably thought the score was a fair reflection of the their side’s dominance but as the referee was looking at blowing for time, Stuart Dixon rolled back the years with a burst from 40 metres out, fending off the final two defenders to cap a fine day for his side. The conversion rounded off the scoring.