Bradford & Bingley 11, Darlington Mowden Park 7

A faint smile broke across Bradford & Bingley director of rugby Martin Whitcombe’s face as he walked towards the Wagon Lane changing rooms after the final whistle.

He had just witnessed a tremendous backs-to-the-wall victory by his second-placed side against top-four rivals Darlington Mowden Park.

“I have been involved in rugby for a long time and I have never seen defence like that,” said the former England A, Natal, Leicester, and Sale prop of his team’s efforts in the second half.

The Bees had flankers James Cokell and Guy Ford in the sin-bin, yet still denied the eight-man visiting pack a try.

But that is barely half the story as Park went through 16 successive phases of play, as well as three scrums, inside the home 22 without breaching their line, young hooker James Brown making the decisive tackle to end that mammoth period.

Whitcombe, who has also played for North of England, Leeds and Keighley, added: “Thirteen men defending our line for 16 phases – it was just incredible and we even managed to push them off their own ball in those three scrums.

“It was a fantastic team effort and it sets things up nicely for next week when we are at Chester, who are third.”

Equally proud Bees skipper Ryan Wederall hinted that it might not have been such a good idea for Park to say they had the best forward three in the section and the best set of forwards.

The Kiwi said: “They were bigging it up on the Rolling Maul website that they had the best front row and the best pack in the division but I think we sorted that one out.”

The statistics from the game still don’t make good reading for the Bees, however – only four line-outs were won in total and 12 lost out of 19; and only eight scrums were won out of 23 and 14 lost.

But there was no denying the tackling quality and the will to win of the home side.

The start of the match was delayed due to a lack of pitch-side flags but the determination of Ford didn’t need flagging up.

He kept finding himself on the end of punts downfield and ran with great determination. It was from one of these bullocking runs that the Bees won a penalty in the fourth minute, Gavin Stead putting it wide.

Left winger Jim McBirnie was denied a try two minutes later near the corner flag, and Stead, who had trouble keeping his standing foot from slipping, missed another penalty in the eighth minute.

These errors came back to haunt the Bees in the 11th minute when they lost possession in the Park 22, full back Gavin Painter counter-attacking well to put Matt Lister over in the corner for a converted try.

However, Park second row Andy Wilson was yellow-carded three minutes later, Stead landing the penalty, and Bradford & Bingley ensured themselves a half-time lead with a try in the 20th minute as fly half Grant Litt’s classy dummy saw Richard Scull go over.

In the second half, Painter missed two penalties, the second after Cokell’s yellow card, and the visitors probably regretted not moving the ball wide when the Bees opted to include Stuart Dixon and fellow back McBirnie in their pack to even up the numbers, leaving just five men outside the scrum.

After a monumental defensive effort, the Bees finished the second half on top, with Stead landing a penalty in the fifth minute of injury time to seal a crucial victory for the Wagon Laners.