Aireborough suffer painful local derby defeat away to Baildon

Aireborough made the short journey to Baildon on Saturday, looking to avenge a defeat at Nunroyd Park earlier in the season. With the team photograph taken and the warm up complete, Aireborough received kick off playing up the hill at Jenny Lane.

Baildon opened the scoring following a line break from their centre which broke the Aireborough defensive line to score under the posts for a converted try. The larger Baildon pack, using the slope to their advantage, had Aireborough on the back foot throughout the first half and the Baildon fly-half extended their lead to 10-0 with a well struck penalty following Aire ill-discipline at scrum time.

Aireborough were unfortunate to find themselves 17-0 down shortly after. Aireborough were going through the phases and spent some time in the Baildon half before an intercepted pass allowed the Baildon fly-half an unopposed run under the posts to dot down for a converted try.

Aireborough applied pressure at the re-start and forced a turnover, Baildon were too keen and infringed at the breakdown which gave Nick Holdsworth a simply penalty attempt which was duly slotted to reduce the deficit to 17-3.

As the first half drew to a close Jonny Mackey rubbed the referee up the wrong way one too many times and found himself nibbling on a cheese slice as he took a breather for 10 minutes. Baildon put their numerical advantage to good use as they applied pressure to the Aire line with a number of scrums before spinning the ball wide to send the winger over in the corner with the last play of the half.

HT: Baildon 22 v Aireborough 3

Aireborough had it all to do in the second half but were confident of managing the slope like they do so well at Nunroyd Park. The pack, bolstered in size with a re-jigged front row of Simon Davies, Martyn Booth and England Police International Tim Baxter, soon had the Baildon scrum back-peddling and were in the ascendancy; quite the turnaround from the first half display.

Aireborough were soon in the Baildon ’22m and going through the Wolf phases, Jonny Hiles found man mountain Simon Davies who crashed over from a short way out near the touch line. Si, sponsored by Smarter Recruitment (https://smarterrecruitment.co.uk/), was never going to be stopped from there and Nick Holdsworth added the extras with a fine conversion from out wide.

Game on!

With Jonny Mackey back on the pitch and Aire back up to their full 15, the Aireborough pack soon had Baildon back in on their heels in their ‘22m. Aireborough, electing to scrum at penalties, had a 5m penalty which Baildon did well to disrupt. Stuart Wilson made a nuisance and was on the end of a cheap shot from behind from the Baildon flanker, breaking his nose and taking him out of a large proportion of the second half. The referee, under pressure from vocal home support, bottled it and only gave the perpetrator a yellow card.

Aireborough made their numerical supremacy count, going through the phases which eventually saw winger Thomas Copsey go over in the corner for a well worked try. Nick Holdsworth was unfortunate with his attempted conversion – hitting the post as the score remained 22-15 with 20 minutes still remaining.

Aireborough were within four points a few minutes later with another swing of a left foot as Nick Holdsworth slotted another penalty. The score was now 22-18 and the momentum was with Aireborough.

Aireborough huffed and puffed in the last 10 minutes but were unable to find a way through the Baildon defence; either through resolute Baildon defence, misfortune or Aireborough impatience trying to force the issue when it wasn’t required.

FT: Baildon 22 v Aireborough 18.

This was a disappointing result given the hard work that the entire squad put into the afternoon. News after the match that the referee was upgrading the Baildon yellow card to a red card particularly stung as there was a good 25 minutes to go in the match and Aireborough were on the ascendancy – an extra man for the remaining minutes would surely have resulted in an Aireborough victory.

Jonny Mackey, playing one his last games for Aireborough as a single man, was immense in the loose – undoubtedly helped with his 10 minute rest – and was deservedly man of the match.

Jonny is sponsored by Retro Spectacle (https://www.retrospectacle.co.uk/) and Aireborough old boy Dave ‘the tank’ Greenwood’.