YORK RUFC eased their North One East relegation concerns with a tense 24-20 triumph at Cleckheaton.

Daz Rutherford, Jon Dawes, Luke Stockton and Toby Atkin all claimed tries for the visitors, with Dawes kicking two conversions.

But York had to survive a late spell, when both Dave Rhodes and Rutherford were sinbinned, before securing victory.

Prior to the match, York had stood one place and six points above Cleckheaton in the table with a game in hand, while the hosts sat just one position above the relegation zone.

Rutherford, Evan Woodworth and Will Scholey made up the starting York front-row with Rhodes and Stockton in the second-row, while Ben Dent played at outside-centre with Dawes inside him and George Davies at full-back.

York’s set-pieces were tight during the opening exchanges, with the forward pack working together to prevent Cleckheaton attacks and the back-line looking dangerous when they had an opportunity.

Liam Hessay was also kicking cleanly from hand to gain territory, but the only score in the opening half-hour saw Cleckheaton fly-half Dale Breakwell kick a penalty.

York subsequently started to apply consistent pressure on the home side, and they were rewarded when Rutherford scored from close range after the away team retained attacking possession within the Cleck 22.

Atkin then made a clean break from half-way and released Dawes in space and support to run York’s second try home.

Both were converted by Dawes to leave York 14-3 up at half-time.

But Cleckheaton scored early in the second period when flanker Josh Plunkett went over on a penalty advantage after some phase ball deep in York’s 22 and Breakwell kicked a nice conversion to reduce the deficit to 14-10.

York were still looking threatening and demonstrating some variety in attack and, after some back-line hands and grind from the forwards, Dent almost scored when he kicked through the Cleckheaton defensive line.

Breakwell went on to kick a penalty to move Cleckheaton within a point of their opponents.

York surged into a commanding lead again, though, after being rewarded for their retention of possession and territorial advantage when Stockton found space to score and Atkin crossed the line following dominant scrum.

Dawes missed both tricky conversions, but his team were 11 points ahead with a quarter-of-an-hour remaining.

Cleckheaton gave everything, however, to get back in to the game and an injured Rhodes, who was returning to his pack, got in the way of a wide pass to receive a yellow card.

Rutherford followed him off the pitch when Cleckheaton kicked for touch, leading to an attacking maul five metres from the York line, which saw him held responsible when it collapsed.

From the resulting penalty, Cleckheaton chose a scrum and the referee awarded the hosts a penalty try, as it moved ominously towards York’s try-line.

With ten minutes to go, Cleckheaton returned to the York 22 quickly and, after being awarded a penalty, chose another scrum but, with depleted numbers, Dawes joined Stockton in the second-row and the York pack held the hosts up.

Atkin went on to scrag the ball carrier off the back of the stalled scrum and won the penalty for York.

In the final minutes, the Clifton Park outfit remained composed under pressure and, with the binned players returning, Cleckheaton were not able to advance from midfield and avoid defeat.

York next travel to bottom team Consett this weekend.

Meanwhile, Selby won 15-12 at bottom team Guisborough to boost their hopes of beating the drop in Yorkshire One. Now up to fourth-bottom, Selby now have a weekend off.