Rugby Lions 37, Bradford & Bingley 31

Two late bonus points kept the Bees’ hopes of beating relegation alive.

While the pace-filled home side always looked comfortable spreading the ball through the hands, Bradford & Bingley played to their strengths, letting the forwards bump and bruise their way up field.

A key element in that strategy is the ball-carrying ability of blindside flanker Guy Ford, who is tasked with getting his side over the gain line and recycling possession. In the opening exchanges, it seemed the home side’s approach was gaining the ascendancy with two scores to go 12-0 up.

However, the Bees stuck to their task and a period of extended pressure near the home line was rewarded with a penalty try as the Lions collapsed a maul with the Bees driving for the line.

Two Lloyd Warner penalties either side of the break pushed the hosts into an 18-7 lead. The sides then exchanged further scores, with Geoff Gregson crossing for the Lions and Ford rumbling in for the Bees.

With 15 minutes to play, it was Ford who capped a superb afternoon’s effort with his second score of the day, which Tom Davidson improved to bring the Bees to within four points of their hosts at 25-21.

Ford and his back-row colleagues Tom Ball and Tom Davidson were again at the heart of all that the Bees were doing well in the close exchanges.

But in the final ten minutes, as has happened far too often this season, the Bees gave away possession when they needed to keep it tight.

The result was that the home side were able to pull away with scores from Phil Read and Liam Munroe.

Warner missed one of those conversions and, with Davidson slotting over a penalty inbetween, the Bees were 13 points in arrears going into stoppage time.

With James McBirnie’s switch from the wing to centre giving the Bees go-forward to complement the silkier handling skills of Tane Jericevich and Steve Brimacombe, it was former Ilkley man McBirnie who crossed to give the Bees a bonus point for a fourth try.

Davidson added the extras to give them a second bonus point for losing by less than seven.