The Heaton side started well and after only 5 minutes, an excellent break out from their own 22 resulted in a try for skipper and flanker Steve Cowman. Fly Half Jonny Robinson kicked the simple conversion to give his side a 7-0 lead.

However, Malton reduced the arrears to 7-3 after Salem were caught off-side and on 25 minutes they capitalised on a mistake from Salem full-back, Chris Savva for a converted try to go in front 10-7. Nevertheless, Savva soon made amends with a excellent solo effort after a kick and chase to give Salem a 12-10 half-time advantage.

Scrum half Dave Howcroft suffered a nasty head wound requiring several stitches so Salem were forced into making a number a positional changes. Winger Ian Woodwiss moved to his preferred position of scrum half, centre Richard Langhorn and Savva returned to their more accustomed roles of full-back and wing respectively and Jonny Luxton moved from the back row to inside centre, his place in the pack being taken by former Wibsey player Rob Bourne.

Unfortunately the disruption led to an error from Robinson which resulted in a try to put the home side 17-12 ahead. Malton at this stage were in control and their pack was dominating the both scrums and line-outs.

However, after defending their line heroically Salem were finally able to get into their opponents half and swift handling from the backs resulted in a try in the corner for winger Chris Luxton which brought the scores level at 17-17.

The Bradford side then took a 20-17 lead on 78 minutes after Malton were penalised for a high tackle on centre Steve McManus but in injury time 2nd Row, John Morrell, was guilty of going in from the wrong side and Malton drew level.