Rugby Lions recorded the double over lowly Beverley, although they produced yet another dismal second half performance to make heavy weather of it. Lion’s started brightly, running the ball back at the visitors straight from the kick off, and Peter Glackin looked to be in for a try, but for some reason decided to pass the ball, and it went forward. Rugby pressured the visitor’s scrum and forced them to touch down over their line for a five-metre scrum. Stuart Riding, playing at number eight, picked up and crashed over in the corner to add to his recent tally of tries. For the next twenty minutes Beverley hardly put a hand on the ball and were pinned deep into their own half. Rugby’s efforts were thwarted, however, by trying to force the play, and their failure to tie in defenders in the tight allowed Beverley to get numbers out wide and stem the flow.

Steve Clarke then forced his way over the line and the referee awarded the try, only to rescind this on an intervention from the touch judge who indicated that the ball was lost forward in the act of scoring. This was very debatable as Clarke looked to have regained control of the ball, whilst on his back, before it was grounded. A good break from Michael Rust playing at scrum half, looked to be leading to a score for the Lions, but the referee stopped play for a minor fracas on half-way and awarded Beverley the penalty.

A knock-on by Hawken following a chip through, saw Beverley in the home 22 for the first time, but a handling error by them allowed Goode to put in a booming clearance kick. With Rugby back in the visitor’s 22, a lovely inside pass from Glackin gave Tristan Prosser-Shaw the opportunity to weave through a number of defenders to score near the uprights. Hawken converted for a 12-0 lead. Another huge kick from Matt Goode found the defender isolated, and penalised for holding on. Nash took a quick tap but was held up just short. From the resulting scrum, Ade Hales at last found a little space and he showed just what he can do in that situation. He took the ball at speed coming into the line from the right, and ran through one tackle and left the other defenders in his wake as he crashed over the line. Hawken converted for a 19-0 lead.

With the wind in their faces in the second half, Lion’s looked a different team and it was to be the visitors who were to dominate play. Tristan Prosser-Shaw was penalised for a high tackle to give Beverley their first chance of putting some points on the board, but the relatively straightforward kick was pushed wide. In a complete reversal of the first half, it was Beverley who were asking all the questions, and Lion’s defence was under severe pressure. It was no real surprise then, that after a ruck in the shadow of the uprights, the ball was moved left and number eight Tupai scored in the corner. The conversion was missed, but with seventeen minutes still on the clock, Rugby’s supporters started to get edgy. With Ade Hales still suffering from a slight hamstring injury, he was replaced by Toby Handley, with Rust reverting to the wing. Beverley’s fly half Duboulay broke the defence and chipped the ball for left wing Terett to chase, but Nash and Murphy just got back in time to deny the score. Rugby still needed another try to claim the extra bonus point, but this was looking rather unlikely at this stage. A series of pick and drives moved Rugby from their own 22 and into Beverley’s until a knock-on halted their progress. The visitor’s attacked from deep into their own territory, and a chip ahead was gathered by Rust, who fed Hawken on a typical charge forward. With Glackin acting as scrum half, Handley took the ball in the flyhalf position and weaved through two tackles to race clear. He then drew the fullback before releasing Alex Nash on his inside to race over unopposed for the vital fourth try.