YARNBURY crushed Wetherby 27-17 to generate a five-point lead over their West Yorkshire rivals in Yorkshire Two.

The away side were the quickest out of the blocks with Yarnbury doing well in their spread defence to keep their opponents out.

However, the hosts broke the deadlock when the ball was quickly moved out to Josh Bateson on the left who was poised to go over until full-back Archie Youlden halted him in his tracks.

Although, it was short lived as Tom Whitfield pounced on the follow-up to score the try which Danny Pound converted.

This was countered immediately by the visitors with a driving maul from a penalty lineout, which lead to prop Mattie Chappel getting the touchdown despite gallant defence.

James Greenwood was carded for offside on 28 minutes and from the resulting line out on five metres Yarnbury captain Tom Goldthorpe scored.

The game was competitive with the 10th-placed side's big forwards breaking out of defence in the second period but were stopped by good cover defence.

Yarnbury spoiled good possession and field position by losing too many lineouts on their own ball, letting the opposition gain good ground as a result through their pack.

After good work by the seventh-placed forwards up the park, second row James Falgate made his presence felt by barging through the tired Wetherby forwards to make the line under the posts for a great individual try, Pound converted to extend the home side lead.

As is the tendency between these two sides, the opponents bounced back with a similar close in try by scrum-half Chris Atkinson seeing a gap and diving over.

Yarnbury scored a fourth and bonus point try in fortunate circumstances with the mist rolling in under the floodlights.

Wetherby tried to break out of defence and stand-off Harry Kaye kicked for field position down the left but the ball bounced up and fooled the oncoming opponents only for stand-off Danny Pound to take it at pace and out-flank the opposition to score out wide.

Not to be outdone, he then converted from the left side a long range penalty between the sticks to give Yarnbury breathing space and a five point win even though Wetherby scored a consolation try at the close through their pack.

This Saturday the pair clash once again in the National Cup, Wetherby will be aiming to reverse this score on home turf.