Batley Boys 2 Woolston Rovers 10

MAL Holt hailed Woolston Rovers’ defence and discipline as “the best he has seen in a long time” as they kept up their winning start to the National Conference League Division Three campaign.

Rovers made it two wins from two in a low-scoring game at newcomers Batley Boys, who had four players sin-binned, including the same player twice and three in a 10-minute period, and one man sent off to finish the game with just 10 players.

Harry Files and Christian Taylor scored the only tries of the game for Rovers – with Batley only able to respond with a solitary penalty goal.

“The boys stood firm and I was delighted with them,” Holt said.

“They are one of the most physical sides that we will play this season and they will be very difficult to defeat, especially on their own pitch with their style of play.

“We were a little bit off where we want to be in attack and failed to take advantage of the numerical advantage when they had men in the sin bin, but I thought our defence and discipline was the best I have seen for a long time and got us a vital win.”

Woolston: Conner Muir; Kieran Jones, Justin Becker, Lewis Hoarty, Christian Taylor; Aaron Barber, Billy Maunder; Josh Sudlow, Ryan Brown, John Welch, Harry Files, Matt Taylor, Kieran Moore. Subs: Theo Holt, Sam Roberts, Danny Griffiths, Alex Smith