Baildon RUFC

The Jenny Laners made it four wins from five meetings against the Bees with a 40-18 victory at Jenny Lane in Counties Two Yorkshire B, and that made it three wins out of three at BD17.

Having established a 22-11 lead up the slope there was only one moment of concern for Baildon when the Bees scored their third try to narrow the deficit to 25-18.

However, in front of a large crowd, Baildon scored the next two tries to finish with a 22-point margin.

The number of penalties conceded was again an Achilles heel for the Bees, but the sixth-placed club are counting the cost of injuries as well ahead of a home match against Huddersfield Laund Hill on Saturday, when third-placed Baildon host Wheatley Hills.

Baildon’s player-coach Tom Parnell, who is expecting to fill the fly-half role for the rest of the season rather than be on the wing, said: “We were better all over the place.

“The set-piece was one thing, discipline was another and structure-wise we played them off the park. We over-exceeded in the forwards and worked our socks off.”

Parnell added: “Taking the game away from the Bees in the second half comes from our micro-management - icing the rucks and utilising our defence and keeping them to 18 points, which could have been a lot less as we gave away five penalties in a row early on.”

As for playing at No 10 rather than in the backs, Parnell confessed: “I am growing into it, enjoying it and having a lot more touches of the ball, which is always good.

“The wingers didn’t get too many touches, and I am thankful that that wasn’t me, and I see myself playing fly half for the rest of the season as why change it if it isn’t broken? We are not searching for another fly half put it that way.”

As for the rest of the season, Parnell said: “We aren’t at our peak yet and we can climb. We are in a very good position to compete with the rest of the league and we only lost narrowly at (leaders) Sheffield II and can push all the way against them, Heath II, Huddersfield Laund Hill etc.”

Bees coach Ali Macdonald was not as angry as after the Bees’ 26-17 defeat at Jenny Lane last November, when they went completely away from their game-plan, but he still cut a frustrated figure.

He said: “We lost this match on penalties and turnovers and we gifted them 31 points so they created only nine points with three shots at goal.

“Out of the penalties that we gave away nine were for high tackles, which is really disappointing as it is something that we have hammered over the past few weeks.

“We all know the rules, though we might disagree with the height, but we have got to keep within those rules otherwise, like here, we are going to find ourselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard.

“Their captain did a good job of ushering the referee, but we have to remove the ref from the game. We can’t keep relying on other teams not taking any of their chances.

“Baildon played really well as a team. They defended their 10-metre line and 22-metre line like it was their try-line so you have to give credit where credit is due, but when you consistently give the opposition opportunities in your half then they are going to take them.”

Macdonald added: “When Ross Peltier got turned over in our 22 collectively we threw the towel in and reverted to type like times of old.

“But we scrummaged well and I was disappointed not to get more from our scrum dominance in terms of penalties as I thought that both of their props were standing up to nullify the contest and it is disappointing when you don’t get rewarded for that dominance.

“Also we carried hard when we decided to carry, but it was too few and far between.

“However, we lost Ricky Palacio to concussion, who took a swinging arm to the head; Alex Leadbeater (who vomited on the pitch) took a shoulder to the face and we think that both Tom Cummins and Austin Flaherty have broken hands so we will have to dip into our squad depth.”

Bradford & Bingley kicked off downhill on the balmiest of afternoons for Jenny Lane in late October and were penalised in the first minute for a high tackle by flanker Adam Mapals, which set the tone for the visitors.

Three minutes later Baildon were ahead, centre Jonty Glendinning setting up Joe Murphy for a try, the flanker running some 22 metres to score in the left-hand corner, Parnell adding the conversion when many on the touchline thought the ball had sailed just wide of the near upright.

Bees full back Dom Walker and Parnell then swapped penalties before Walker landed a second kick in the 23rd minute to make it 10-6.

Baildon No 8 Oli Murphy scored a close-range try three minutes later, Parnell adding the conversion and, after a strong run by Peltier, Walker missed a penalty shot at goal.

Dan Cookson bagged a try in the 31st minute, Walker being yellow carded as a result, but the Bees scored the next try via lock Corey Spencer, though some thought that he was guilty of a double movement before getting the ball down.

Leading 22-11 at half-time, Baildon had to suffer a fired-up Peltier after half-time, the former Keighley Cougar being convinced that he had been racially abused by a spectator just before the interval.

Parnell bagged the first points of the second half with a 42nd-minute penalty, but Peltier ran strongly again to score three minutes later, Walker’s conversion putting the result back in the balance at 25-18.

However, the Bees could not then capitalise on pressure before being caught cold by a Joe Murphy tap and go that led to a try by centre Oliver Shakeshaft in the 57th minute.

Parnell’s conversion made it 32-18, but he then inexplicably missed a simple penalty kick at goal in the 66th minute before landing another two minutes later.

With time ticking away, Baildon bagged the last points via with a Will Eastell try.

Referee Stuart Turnbull, from Huddersfield, explained after the final whistle: “I was told that someone had racially abused a Bradford & Bingley player and spoke to both the Baildon captain and a member of their coaching staff, but couldn’t identify the allegedperpretrator as their were about 30-40 people standing in the vicinity.”