Burnley and Pendle Lions 38

Leyland Warriors 20

BURNLEY and Pendle Lions powered to a third consecutive victory after fighting back to beat local rivals Leyland Warriors.

The confident Lions were in the groove from the off and opened the scoring in the second minute thanks to a try from Zac Child after good work from second rower Alex Woodcock and stand-in hooker, Ian Coates.

With captain, Ben Healy, leading the way in defence, Leyland were struggling to get out of their 20 metre zone. Some heavy hitting by Jordan Lord and Luke Edwards resulted in the Warriors turning over the ball near their own try line and Coates spotted a gap in the defence to sneak over.

Midway through the half, Leyland scored a converted try to cut the gap to 8-6 but the Lions hit back with a third try, Chris Greenwood, continuing to perform impressively at stand off, finding Luke Edwards breaking from the base of the scrum who offloaded to Ash Nuttall for a clear run to the line. But Leyland refused to buckle and cross for a second try following some clever interplay.

Crucially for the Lions they scored next to lead 16-10 at the break when scrum half Simon Wrigley evaded four defenders to score.

However, Leyland took confidence out of their first half performance and scored two very good early second half tries to lead 20-16.

Burnley refused to panic and went back to basics and soon had their visitors on the back foot which ended with a long range break from Jordan Lord led to his first try of the afternoon with Zac Child adding the extras.

The Lions were on the scoreboard again when Woodcock crashed over which seemed to break the Warriors resistance.

Lord completed a successful afternoon for himself and the Lions by crossing the whitewash twice more to complete his hat-trick. The Lions play Bury Broncos B at Prairie Sports Village on Saturday (ko 2.30pm).