Heworth'S push for promotion took a battering as National Conference League division two leaders Hunslet Warriors gave a great second half show to beat them 46-0.

The Villagers are the only side to have defeated Hunslet this season but any hopes of a notable double were swept away after the break as the hosts took revenge in style.

Heworth were well in the game in the first half before the Warriors' BARLA under-23 international winger, Bryn Powell, scored the second try of his hat-trick just before the break, his first having been a superb individual effort right at the start of the game.

Thereafter it was all one-way traffic as Hunslet - despite the sterling efforts of Heworth pair Jason Gatus and Dan Briggs - turned a 12-0 interval lead into a runaway victory.

The Villagers were missing several key players, including Gavin Grant, Nikki Wilson, Steve Barnard and Liam Cochrane, but spokesman Ken Sykes said there were no excuses.

"I thought at the beginning of the season, even when we beat them, that Hunslet would probably be one of the strongest teams, if not the strongest, in this division. Now I definitely can't see anybody else wining it.

"They seemed keyed up for the game as they probably wanted recompense for our win over them and they played extremely well.

"We were good value up to their second try and there were one or two dubious forward passes but they did overrun us in the second half, while their defence gave nothing away.

"It's not all doom and gloom. It was quite a big defeat but we can bounce back."

Other tries came from James Baker, Chris Peach, Chris Sebine and Peter Thornton (2), with Dean Creaser kicking seven goals.

Updated: 12:23 Monday, November 12, 2001