Stone on a roll in easy win

It was definitely not Rishworthians' best display of the season, but a bonus point win in a 53-10 success lifted the hoodoo that had dogged them at Leodiensians.
Leos v Rishworthians
Chris Stone scoresLeos v Rishworthians
Chris Stone scores
Leos v Rishworthians Chris Stone scores

Four previous visits to the Leeds club had been unsuccessful, but a high-scoring victory kept their momentum in Yorkshire Two.

Player-coach Chris Stone had two more reasons to be happy. He scored three of his side’s nine tries and other results left Rishworthians clear in second place.

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He was immediately preparing to work on the mistakes made by Rishworthians which might otherwise have resulted in even more tries.

Straight from the kick-off the visitors were on the attack as, after gathering the ball, centre Taniela Bakoso set off on the first of many strong runs.

The play went wide and winger Anthony Shoesmith was stopped just short before the ball went to ground.

Rishworthians started making errors and allowed Leos to come back strongly and take the lead with a penalty.

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Two strong runs from captain Fraser Swarbrooke, who led from the front in a fine display, was followed by a Bakoso break before the ball went to ground again.

Good work by flanker Ben Robinson regained possession for Rishworthians and the ball went out for fly half Josh Kelly to touch down.

Robinson was there again to steal the ball and set up strong runs by Bakoso and flanker Nick Faulkner. The latter slipped it to Swarbrooke who cruised through a gap to score. Kelly added the conversion.

Having taken a nine-point lead, Rishworthians went to sleep and a poor clearance kick gave Leos the chance to run the ball back and score a converted try in the corner.

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Straight from the restart, though, the visitors passed the ball out and Shoesmith ran in at the corner.

The visitors were starting to feel dominant, but twice made a mess of good opportunities before finally scoring. Swarbrooke took a good lineout catch and was driven over with Stone touching down.

Faulkner then broke out of a four-man tackle and ran through to score. Kelly converted to make it 29-10 in the visitors’ favour at half-

From the restart Bakoso beat off four separate tacklers before getting the ball out for Kelly to touch down and then convert his own try.

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Swarbrooke again took the ball in the lineout and was driven over with Stone touching down his second try.

In a series of scrums on the home line, Rishworthians were first denied a try, then pushed the home side off the ball and finally got a pushover try with No 8 James Clarke touching down.

Stone completed his hat trick as his pack drove over from a good lineout catch by Robinson. Fullback Jacob Ford added the conversion.

In the last five minutes Rishworthians showed excellent defence to hold out a Leos side who were determined to get a consolation score.

The development team had another fine win at Copley, defeating Airbronians 71-5, including a hat-trick of tries for winger Rhys Town.