Jordan Rosano, Kieran Dawson and Niall Davison ensured valuable possession in the rucks and Charlie Humphreys and Oliver Clark were very lively around the mauls. With Cleckheaton dominating possession and gaining ground, Joe Roberts picked up a loose ball and drove over from five metres out to make the half-time score 7-5 in Hull’s favour.

With both sets of forwards tiring in the heat and on the hard ground, both sets of backs came into play. Joe Humphreys provided the ammunition for surging runs from Jacob Panther and Dalton Yates, both of which would have scored if it hadn’t been for last ditch Hull tackles.

A lapse in concentration saw Hull score an easy try, but credit to Cleckheaton who, spurred on by captain Nathan Smith, came back into the game. As the ball went wide, Tom Wrigley chipped the ball over the Hull defence for Ben Leitch to run on and collect the bouncing ball to score back to 14-12 to Hull.

Credit due to the Hull defence who stood strong as a series of good kicks from Mikey Bray and accurate lineout throws from Marcus Fletcher, gave Cleckheaton a big advantage. Just as it looked as though Cleckheaton were to score again and win the game, Hull found their second wind to break through a strong tackle by Josh Healey and score a try to make the final score 21-12 in their favour.

A good performance by Cleckheaton which had everything except the reward of the tries, deserved by the strong runs of man of the match Dalton Yates and his fellow backs.