YORK Knights stayed within touching distance of the top six with a resounding 37-6 victory over fellow Betfred Championship play-off chasers Batley Bulldogs in their penultimate home fixture at the LNER Community Stadium.
Matches between the two teams had tended to be tight affairs over recent seasons, but it proved to be anything but, with Mark Applegarth’s side on top from the first minute until the last in the swirling wind.
Connor Bailey’s sixth-minute opener set the tone for York, with both James Cunningham and Joe Law crossing the whitewash before a serious injury to Batley’s Alistair Leak saw play halted for 10 minutes whilst the interchange hooker received treatment on the field.
Neither side could regain their flow for the remainder of the opening half, but the hosts still held a comfortable 18-6 lead at the break.
Points proved to be just as forthcoming for the Knights after the interval, with Man of the Match Nikau Williams converting a penalty before Brenden Santi crashed over from close range via the left-hand post.
Ata Hingano’s dancing feet then freed Joe Brown to score his 18th try of the season on 66 minutes, and with Jacob Gannon also adding his name to the scoresheet from the restart, Williams wrapped up the scoring with a drop-goal as the Knights recorded three consecutive wins for the first time this season.
The result sees York remain seventh, two points behind sixth-placed Featherstone, ahead of a tough trip to troubled Whitehaven next weekend.
MATCH RECAP: York Knights 37-6 Batley Bulldogs
Applegarth made just one change to the side that stunned Toulouse last week, with AJ Towse starting on the right wing as Brown replaced Will Dagger, sidelined with a calf injury, at full-back.
Jack Martin, another of the Knights’ standouts, replaced Conor Fitzsimmons on the bench, as fellow forward Jordan Thompson made his 350th career appearance.
Kieran Buchanan, widely linked with a move to North Yorkshire next season, started in the centres for Batley, with only Jonny Mitsias seemingly up for the challenge in what was otherwise a pedestrian performance from the West Yorkshire side.
The game’s first chance fell to the visitors against the run of play, with Robbie Butterworth inches away from racing onto Josh Woods’ neat chip, but the Knights were able to see the ball out for a 20-metre restart.
However, it wasn’t long until the hosts were in front, capitalising on a mistake from Elliot Kear, who had failed in his attempt to intercept Law’s intended cut-out pass to Brad Ward on the 20-metre line.
After collecting Gannon’s outstanding offload, Ronan Michael was felled narrowly short, but opting to run the ball on the powerplay, Williams found Bailey, who crashed over to the right of the posts to open the scoring.
Williams added the extras with ease in the first of six successful attempts from the tee.
Batley could not live with the Knights, who maintained their ferocious pace from the restart, with Hingano releasing Ward on the left wing.
He passed back infield to Brown, who found Cunningham, the loose forward racing 15 metres to score on the opposite edge before Williams again converted.
The visitors’ cause was not helped by Butterworth’s restart flying out on the full, but they were handed a let-off by Ward, whose grubber rolled dead.
Batley though did hit back from their first real attack as the half reached its midpoint, with Butterworth sidestepping a couple of defenders and proving too strong for Law as he surged into the right corner.
Woods superbly arrowed through his touchline conversion, but that was the last time that the Bulldogs troubled the scoreline, despite the Knights’ resultant kick-off flying out.
Batley’s resurgence soon came to a halt when York regained their two-try advantage, with Law collecting Hingano's cut-out pass and selling Kear a huge dummy before crashing over to the left of the posts.
And things went from bad to worse for the visitors when interchange Leak took a huge hit as he tackled Hingano, with play halted for 10 minutes as he received treatment before being carried from the field on a stretcher.
Once play resumed, consecutive penalties for high tackles handed York a fantastic opportunity to add to their lead on the half-hour, but after Law had narrowly avoided being dragged into touch, a knock-on relieved the pressure on the Batley defence.
The Knights saw another opportunity pass them by before the hooter, with Brown’s offload to Williams as he was tackled ruled to have gone forwards, but still held a comfortable 18-6 lead at the break.
It took just five minutes for York to extend their advantage in the second half, Williams slotting over a penalty from just beyond the 20-metre line after the visitors had been penalised for offside.
Things threatened to worsen further for Batley from the restart, with Martin appearing to have been elbowed in the face by Castleford Tigers loanee Nixon Putt, but referee Ryan Cox was unmoved.
The home support though again erupted on 48 minutes, with Santi crashing onto Daley’s short pass, taking two defenders with him as he powered over from close range via the left-hand post.
With the Bulldogs’ attack disjointed, further opportunities continued to fall the hosts’ way, but they could not capitalise on consecutive knock-ons on the 10-metre line, with Daley ruled to have been held up as he seemed set to score.
Batley’s floodgates though opened in the 10 minutes that followed as York put the scoreline firmly out of reach.
First, Hingano danced around the visiting defence, breaking clear before feeding the supporting Brown to touch down on the right edge, before Will Jubb fired a thunderous pass to Gannon, who turned a defender before grounding the ball to the left of the posts.
Williams converted the latter but not the former, then adding gloss to the scoreline with a drop goal from 10 metres with six minutes left to play.
The Kiwi playmaker then came close to adding a seventh try for the Knights after seeing his kick cannon back off an opposition player and into his path, but Jubb was ruled to have strayed offside in the build-up.
It was Batley who finished the stronger, but there was no time for a goal-line drop-out on an afternoon in which they were firmly second best.
YORK KNIGHTS: Brown, Towse, Field, Law, Ward, Williams, Hingano, Michael, Jubb, Thompson, Bailey, Gannon, Cunningham.
INTERCHANGES: Teanby, Santi, Daley, Martin
TRIES: Bailey (6), Cunningham (10), Law (22), Santi (48), Brown (66), Gannon (69)
GOALS: Williams 6/7
DROP GOAL: Williams (76)
BATLEY BULLDOGS: Butterworth, Kear, Mitsias, Buchanan, Burton, White, Woods, Brown, Moore, Cooper, Manning, Walshaw, Blake.
INTERCHANGES: Leak, Flynn, Putt, Kaye
TRY: Butterworth (17)
GOAL: Woods 1/1
POINTS SEQUENCE: 4-0, 6-0, 10-0, 12-0, 12-4, 12-6, 16-6, 18-6, 20-6, 24-6, 26-6, 30-6, 34-6, 36-6, 37-6
HALF TIME: 18-6
YORK’S STAR MAN: Nikau Williams. An outstanding performance from the Kiwi half-back, whose partnership with Hingano continues to flourish, and who proved just as adept in defence as in attack.
REFEREE: Ryan Cox
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