Aled Rowlands’ gruelling fitness sessions appear to have paid off, with the Tigers to a man looking fit and hungry and as early as the fifth minute a typical bone-crunching South Sea Islands’ tackle from recent signing Richard Tafa, a Tongan international signed from Bradford & Bingley, freed the ball up and it was pounced on and fed left at speed to another summer addition, Paul Wilcock.

The left wing – Leigh RUFC’s top try scorer last season – then showed his pace, leaving his marker for dead and sprinting over 50 metres to touch down in the left-hand corner, with Phil Jones adding the conversion.

As usual this fixture was played over four quarters rather than just two halves, allowing both sides to rotate their squads, with the Dalesmen utilising all 25 of their selections, the Tigers just the 22 they had on duty.

Two minutes into the second quarter the home side got back on level terms when the Tigers' burgeoning indiscipline presented the Dalesmen with a penalty. They kicked for touch then won the line-out and spun the ball right to left for Ryan Gill to touch down in the comer, goaled by Mark Bedworth.

The Dalesmen began to enjoy much more possession as the Tigers’ indiscipline carried over from last season, with a penalty awarded to them on the home 22 reversed after backchat from the claret and golds.

However, they restored their lead minutes into the third quarter when the pacy Wilcock was again on hand to race down the touchline to score in the left-hand corner, once more converted by Jones.

It then began to get a bit more fractious and on 46 minutes the Tigers went down to 14 men when Dave Livesey was yellow-carded. Yet they coped well and the Dalesmen were not allowed to score while they were short.

Unfortunately they were not at full strength for long, as the fiery Tafa and the Wharfedale blindside flanker traded hand-bags and were both yellow-carded towards the end of a very physical third quarter.

The Dalesmen drew level again in the 66th minute when a Tiger lost the ball in the tackle and it was scooped up by Wharfedale’s Luke Gray who ran in unopposed before adding the extras himself.

However, this simply shook the Tigers up and in the final 10 minutes they ran in another three tries.

Good movement created space out on the left and new No 8 Olly Cook just beat Swatkins to the touchdown by the corner flag on 70 minutes.

Five minutes later the momentum was continued and just inside the Greens’ 22 Tafa burst onto a pass at pace, bisecting the home defence on the angle to cruise over by the posts, goaled by Jones.

Finally, with two minutes to go Matt Riley made a good break before kicking over the top of the Dalesmen’s defence and another summer addition, Swatkins, chased and gathered the ball before scoring in the corner. Jones’ fourth conversion of then ensured the Tigers won comfortably in the end.

Despite the usual handling mistakes made at this stage of the pre-season preparations Director of Rugby Tim Fourie must have been pleased with his squads’ efforts, although the question of discipline will once more have to be addressed.

TIGERS: Riley, Swatkins, Craig, Tafa, Wilcock, Jones, Wilkinson, Gazzola, Roddam, Du Plessis, Williams, Townson, Crous, Newton, Cook, A. Livesey, Kohler, Greenhalgh, Fourie, D. Livesey, Leck, Largan.
Tries: Wilcock 2, Cook, Tafa, Swatkins.
Conversions: Jones 4.
Yellow cards: D. Livesey and Tafa