Having come firing out the blocks to race into a 14-0 lead, it looked like the Vandals were on course to register back-to-back 50-plus point victories, having seen off Sheffield Medicals 59-7 a week before.

Full credit to Hemsworth, though, who belied their lowly position in the league to regroup and caused the visitors a host of problems.

Another week of changes due to unavailabilities - including new half-back, back row and centre partnerships for the fourth successive game - certainly didn’t help the Vandals however tries from Aaron Carrington, Joe Bryson, George Clapham, Tony McAspurn and Ben Burnside meant the coaches were at least be pleased with the result, if not the performance.

The Vandals had got off to the ideal start as the hosts failed to gather the opening kick-off and the pack snaffled up the loose ball. Olly Coyne, Paul Jowett and Isaac Pollard drove at the heart of the home defence, before Carrington applied the finishing touch from a yard. Ryan Arnold slotted over the extras.

The second try soon followed, with Hemsworth shoved off their own ball at the scrum allowing the Vandals to pick and drive towards the line. This time, Bryson was on hand to power over. Arnold added the conversion.

Hemsworth began to work their way back into the encounter but the Vandals defence held firm, while a shot at goal sailed just wide. And it was the Vandals defence that set up the third try, with a big hit from Luke Sutcliffe seeing the ball spilt. Clapham pounced to fly-hack it up field twice, with a favourable bounce allowing him to dive over. Arnold added the extras.

Any hopes this would kill off the Hemsworth resistance failed to materialise as the hosts crossed for a good team try just before half-time. The conversion made it 21-7 at the break.

Hemsworth had their tails up and a penalty, followed by another try after some poor defending from Vandals suddenly cut the gap to the six points.

The Vandals, guilty of switching off, attempted to find a foothold back into the match and they thought they had it when a beautiful chip over the top was regathered by McAspurn for the bonus point try.

Hemsworth, though, had other ideas. A missed shot at goal was followed by a series of quick taps from close range, with the home side eventually getting the ball down to cut the deficit to six again.

However the Vandals finally made sure with eight minutes left as Burnside crashed over after the pack had again done the hard yards.

Next up will be Skipton at home, with the North Yorkshire side registering the result of the day as they ended Castleford’s unbeaten start to the season.