Shaw Cross suffer heavy defeat at hands of league leaders Ince Rose Bridge

A youthful looking Sharks struggled contain Rose Bridge and defeat leaves them second-bottom in the table, a point above Askam and one behind East Leeds.

The Sharks included five under-18 players in their side, with Brad Baines, Harrison Sutcliffe, Joel Russell, Elliott Richardson and Cal Burden making the step up to open age rugby.

Huddersfield Rugby Union player Dickie Piper also returned for his first Sharks appearance of the season.

Shaw Cross suffered a nightmare start as they conceded two tries in the opening four minutes.

Jamie Malone crossed for the opening score on the left before Rob Valentine broke from halfway to go over for the first of his hat-trick, with two conversions making it 12-0.

Shaw Cross recovered well and hit back when Dec Brereton drove them into a good position before the ball was moved left and Thomas Stuckey passed to Brad Baines to score. Callum Barker added the conversion.

Ince Rose Bridge regained possession from the re-start and although Brereton made a great tackle to deny Calum Hughes, the visitors extended their lead through a Matt Meaden try before Malone added his second try following a break involving Danny Cassidy and Mitch Parr, which extended their lead to 22-6 at half-time.

Shaw Cross had a strong start to the second half but couldn’t find a way over the line.

It was Ince Rose Bridge who scored the crucial next try as Jordan Blakeley ran a great line to go through.

That began a spell of three tries in five minutes, with Cassidy making a break and Valentine supporting for his second before Cassidy crossed from an Andy Collier break.

The Sharks replied with a second consolation try as Stuckey and Barker combined nicely to send Harrison Sutcliffe over for the score.

However, Bridge went on to score four more tries in the final 20 minutes of the game.

Cassidy finished off a Connor Matthews break, before Blakeley collected an offload and found Hughes to take them past the 50-point mark.

Two players completed their hat-trick tries late on, Valentine going over from a scrum and Cassidy rounding things off by chasing his own kick downfield and scoring as Ince completed a 12th win of the season which leaves them four points clear of West Bowling at the top.

West Bowling meet East Leeds in a fixture the Sharks will have a keen eye on this Saturday before Shaw Cross travel to Bowling for their next game on July 6.