Huddersfield YMCA eased some of their relegation fears in North I East as they notched a 34-20 home win over fellow strugglers Driffield.

The teams went into the Laund Hill clash level on points and it turned out to be an absorbing contest.

From the outset the visitors showed what they could do with their forwards retaining the ball well and gaining good ground – in response the YMCA dug in and that set the tone for the game.

Driffield pounded away at the YMCA defence but couldn’t quite find a breakthrough, while the home side were living on scraps of possession but made the best of everything that came their way.

The home side took the lead when stand off Mick Piper saw his chance to place a kick towards the touchline for Stuart Morton to collect and claim the touchdown and YMCA’s man-of-the-match Gavin Stead knocked over the conversion to get his side on the board against the run of play.

Driffield came straight back and managed to create an overlap for centre Kyle Dench to touchdown, but kicker Brigham failed with the conversion.

The referee sent Driffield’s Joe Robinson to the sin-bin for a professional foul leaving the YMCA to elect to take a scrum from five metres out. Lumb picked up at the base and found Stead and the ball was recycled and Seif Boussada was on hand to force his way over to claim the home side’s second try of the game - Steads added the goal.

Driffield’s Brigham made no mistake with a penalty to put the visitors back in striking distance, but on half-time Stead redressed the balance with a penalty for YMCA to lead 17-8 at the break.

YMCA RU v Driffield RU at Laund Hill.

YMCA made a strong start to the second period when Piper launched an overheard kick andStead took advantage to score the touchdown and then added the touchline kick.

Driffield’s man-of-the-match Dervey lead the fightback and made the break that ended with wing Sam Furbank going over unmarked, but Brigham’s conversion attempt was wide of the mark.

Further Driffield pressure brought more reward as Dervey managed to spin out of the tackle and crash over and Brigham added the extras to bring his side within four points.

It was backs to the wall time for the YM as they withstood a serious battering.

Having seen off the pressure YMCA pushed forward and Boussada was held up and a five metre scrum had been awarded.

Driffield were flirting with danger and after a couple of scrum infringements and looked likely to concede a penalty try.

Lumb was not prepared to hang around however and picked the ball out of the scrum and the ball was fed out to Tom Bullock who scored with Stead adding the goal yet another kick from a difficult angle and range, and as the game drew to a close he added a decisive penalty.

HUDDERSFIELD YMCA: Fletcher; Bullock, Pooloogadoo, Morton, Stead; Piper, Bradley; Dyke, Hill, Slater, Housley, Boussada, Hill, Hodge, Lumb. Interchange; Holyhead, Wrafter, White