Rotherham, fielding a side largely made up of young and inexperienced players, had this game in their grasp - a powerful performance from the pack producing sustained periods of dominance and three tries should have been enough - but a poor last quarter proved to be costly.

The Clifton Lane side let themselves be outplayed in several key positions and made far too many irritating errors that you lost count of the number of times the ball was needlessly given away.

There can be no excuses, they threw away a result against a team who were behind 15-0 at the break.

The Academy had the better of early exchanges and went ahead on 12 minutes when scrumhalf Alex Drage scored a try from close-quarters after a period of pressure on the visitor's try line. He collected the ball from the back of a maul - after the pack had made several efforts to drive over the whitewash - and darted over for his first score of the afternoon. His try, converted by Jonny West, gave the home side a 7-0 lead.

Drage notched up a second sniper's try on 27 minutes, again, after sustained pressure on the Bradford & Bingley line his snappy dash extended the score to 12-0 before Jonny West landed a penalty on the stroke of half time.

Such was the dominance of the home side that the visitors were neither able to win nor retain ball, they could not get into the Rotherham 22 until the 39th minute of the game. After the break the visitors responded with two unconverted tries on 45 and 56 minutes before James Waterhouse was driven over for a try on the hour mark. West's conversion made the score 22-10.

But all their excellent efforts before the hour mark were shattered by the self-inflicted blows that were to follow in the last quarter.

Bradford & Bingley replied with 22 points - four tries and a conversion in 30 minutes - to smash the home side's hopes. For much of this critical period, Rotherham were not at the races. Poor decision making, eccentric clearance attempts from deep in their own 22, poor line out and sloppy defending made it surprisingly easy for the visitors.

The turning point came when inside centre, Will Kirtley, left the field injured. Kirtley, who shone yet again, provided a focus for his young team-mates. With his departure the momentum went the way of Bradford & Bingley as they piled up points to draw level.

Substitutes Used:
Charlie Spon-Smith, Tyle Stimpson, Dave Bolton,  Rhys Moon, James Waterhouse, Danny Collins, Jonny Larbey, Matt Dixon.