Hunslet Hawks: Hawks prove tough nuts to crack

It was Hawks’ seventh win in their last eight games and Bramald felt the resilient second-half performance, after they led 12-8 at half-time, was a big step forward.

“It was a tough one, we did it the hard way,” Bramald reflected. “We lost Kyran Johnson at half-time with an abductor injury and we had some blokes playing busted, with injuries, so to keep them scoreless in the second half, playing downhill, was a fair effort.

“We had to shuffle people around and we lost a couple of rotations. We had some blokes running on empty at the end, but we refused to be beaten.

“We talked about not lying down and grinding a result out and we did that.”

Hawks, who play host to Doncaster on Friday, have won their opening two games in the Kingstone Press League One Super-8s and Bramald added: “We were a bit scratchy with the ball, but if we defend like that we can work on structure and ball work. If we only concede eight points per game we won’t go far wrong.”

A group of fans walked from Leeds to the game to raise money for the family of Hunslet supporter Mark Byron Smith, who died last month.

Bramald said: “That was a big effort so it was pleasing for them that we got the two points.”