Rugby Lions claimed another win as they continue to work hard to seal a strong mid-table league position with a fifth win in their last six fixtures.

Bradford dominated early play and it took committed Lions defence to stave off an early score for the visitors who as ever had a bigger set of forwards than Lions fielded.

When they finally saw some possession in the Bradford half, Rugby opened the scoring when Phil Reed’s pass bounced into Jeff Gregson’s hands and he swerved through the Bees defence for a try on 13 minutes.

Matt Goode’s excellent run then led to Lloyd Warner scoring a try before adding the conversion himself for 12-0 at the end of the first quarter.

But then Lions lost Lloyd Saunders to the sinbin for pulling back an opposition player and heavy Bees pressure resulted in a penalty try for Lions kicking the ball out of a scrum, Davidson’s conversion making it 12-7.

Warner’s penalty extended Rugby’s lead again but Rugby were having a tough time of restraining the strong ball carriers in Bradford’s side who were also powerful enough to consistently push Lions back in scrums on the very wet surface.

Bradford suffered a sinbinning when the touch judge adjudged Tongan centre Tylan Mafi had hit Lewis Barker around the head although Mafi and his captain had plenty to say against the decision.

Lions only added a Warner penalty while having the man advantage although Mafi was to be replaced soon after his return.

Lions were rocked when a Bradford maul saw the ball suddenly shoot forward and everyone stopped for a knock on except for David Ford who scored at will, Davidson’s conversion making it 18-14 after 61 minutes.

Lions’ response was to exert their own pressure and this eventually led to Gregson going over for his second try, converted by Warner for 25-14 as the points scoring rush began with players tiring from their efforts on a very wet pitch.

Ford collected another easy converted try only for Lions to reply through Liam Munro’s score for 30-21 on 75 minutes.

A Davidson penalty then tightened the scores again before Rugby stretched their lead when Munro charged down a Bees clearance attempt, the visitors fumbled the ball and Phil Reed dived on the ball and slid into the post protector for a score converted by Warner for 37-24.

Bradford had one more converted score through winger James McBirnie that gave them two bonus points but the win was safe for Rugby.