York travelled to 2nd place Cleckheaton expecting a tough game and were not disappointed. York had picked up injuries against Bradford and Bingley ruling out scrum half Toby Atkin, fly half Declan Cusack and centre Will Fordy. Liam Hessay moved from full back to fly half, Jonny Frank came in at centre, Joel Bradley made his first 1st XV start at scrum half and George Davies came in on the wing with Ben Dyson-Dent at full back.

York started well with a strong wind at their backs. The forwards were carrying well against a good Cleckheaton defence but eventually space was created wide on the right wing for George Davies to finish in the corner. Conversion missed. York continued to control possession and it wasn’t long before Cleckheaton were penalised at the breakdown 35m out. Hessay slotted the penalty.

Cleckheaton now started to enjoy some possession, working the ball through their powerful pack. York in turn were starting to make handling errors against some tough tackling. From a line out, Cleckheaton set up a driving maul and Carley scored with Breakwell adding the conversion. Cleckheaton quickly added to their tally - York lost the ball in midfield and a well-judged cross field kick from Breakwell found Hayward in space. He outpaced the York defence to score under the posts.Cleckheaton soon capitalised on another York handling error in midfield with Marsden scoring a good try under the posts. This was followed by the bonus point score just before half time with Breakwell converting both. It is worth noting York had four attacking line-outs on the Cleckheaton 5m line in the first half and failed to convert any of them into points.

Half time score 28-8.

The second half started in similar fashion with Breakwell using the wind at his back to add a drop goal. York, to their credit, regrouped and started to produce some play which replicated what we had become used to in recent weeks. The bench was introduced and some powerful carries from Maud, Fox and Robinson was starting to force penalties in York’s favour. With the penalties kicked to the corner, York’s lineout started to work and firstly Luke Stockton and then Joe Maud scored 2 tries in quick succession. Hessay was struggling to convert from out wide into the wind and both conversions were missed. A fourth bonus point try followed with a fine one-handed finish by Rob Hodges in the corner following an excellent pass from Bradley.

Despite more pressure from York, Cleckheaton managed the game through to it’s finish with the excellent Breakwell adding 2 further penalties to make the final score 37-23 for a well-deserved victory.

Next week York entertain Scarborough which will be another testing game.