Bradford & Bingley 37, Burnage 25 For the first 30 minutes it looked like the Bees were on course for a huge winning margin as they shredded a bewildered looking Burnage side.

However, after leading 28-3 the hosts then had a fight on their hands as the visitors hit back.

Richard Tafa opened the scoring on six minutes, ploughing over to the left of the posts. Within a minute, he was back over the whitewash as a sublime step-and-go from Giles Hetherington carved open the visiting defence, allowing the Bees to work the ball down the right-hand touchline and back to the left, finding Tafa in space to crash over.

Richard Scull added a third try on 24 minutes before Burnage finally got a toe-hold in the game with a penalty.

The Bees’ dominance was reaffirmed four minutes before the break as Scull wriggled over wide on the left. With a booming conversion from Stead making it 28-3, the Bees looked forward to playing up the slope with a comfortable advantage.

However, Burnage emerged from behind the posts a changed team as centre Stuart Oldham dotted down.

The same pattern continued after the break and it was the visitors who were enjoying all the territory and possession.

Spurred on by centres Oldham and Adam Knight, the Manchester side seemed completely in charge.

It took only three minutes for Burnage to notch their second score through Tom Blaney and when a third try was added 13 minutes later, many in the Wagon Lane crowd began to fear the worst.

Finally, there appeared to be some semblance of order restored as the Bees started to make inroads up the slope into Burnage territory.

The home back-line, which had seemed unstoppable in the opening quarter of the game, began to function again and the pack started to show renewed authority.

The Bees renewed pressure earned three penalties, which Stead slotted over perfectly, with a single strike from Burnage’s Knight wrapping up the scoring.