You could justifiably say that any team that shows a 44 point improvement over one season is heading in the right direction. York coach Leo Epifania might disagree with you though as Hornets drubbed and nilled his side for the second year running.

Martin Hall had made five changes to the Hornets side that drew at Leigh last week and, whilst this might not have been the strongest Hornets line-up, it proved way too good for the Wasps.

Hornets opened their account after just four minutes, David Larder creating a huge hole in the middle of the park and timing his pass to perfection to send Latham Tawhai in by the posts. Agar converted.

Stung into (in)action York then dug in - slowing down the play the ball, drifting offside and generally spoiling Hornets rhythm. And it worked - well, for about 18 minutes - right up until Tawhai pushed a towering bomb into the left corner, catching centre Rob Lee was uncompromisingly planted by Matt Calland and Casey Mayberry dived in to touch down the loose ball.

Two minutes later, York were back standing under their crossbar. Pachniuk broke up the blindside, Bunyan took the pass and gobbled up the yards and Tawhai said 'ta very much' to collect the pass and score. Inexplicably, Agar missed a sitter.

It was James Bunyan again who caused York problems on Hornets next foray into their territory. A break on the last tackle seemed to have come to nothing, but he smuggled the ball out for Marlon Billy to crash in. Damian Ball took over kicking/missing duties and the half ended with Hornets comfortably 22-0 ahead.

The second half began with York stepping up their spoiling game. Referee King was quite happy for their pack to loiter in our line, flop on tackles and hang on for as long as they liked. After suffering ten minutes of this arsing about, Hornets had had enough. First Agar stepped into space 30 metres out and picked out Damian Ball who scampered in. Tawhai converted. Next up, Dave Watson - making a welcome return - capitalised on James Bunyan's previous drive to bustle in from acting half.

Then came the game's two most exceptional moments. First, Casey Mayberry made a lightning 50 metre break. Credit to the York defence who ran him down and, just as it seemed that he would be felled short, he somehow managed to flick the ball back inside to the supporting Calland who powered in. Two minutes later Matty repaid the compliment, punching a huge hole in the Wasps' defence and drawing in tacklers before sending Mayberry sprinting in under the posts with an immaculate pass. Magical stuff.

Five minutes later, the impressive 'Panto Genie' Paul Davidson conjured up Latham Tawhai's(pictured) hat-trick try with a blockbusting run taking him clear of the tacklers and a perfectly timed inside pass.

With York now reduced to lying in the tackle in numbers, making no attempt to retreat 10 metres and blatantly interfering at ever play the ball, Hornets still managed one last push up the field. The determination was rewarded in the closing seconds as Matt Long slumped in from a yard to complete a good afternoon at the office for Hornets.

On an afternoon where Hornets gave a more concerted display of what we're capable of, Martin Hall was particularly happy with the defensive effort - nilling any side is always an impressive statement. He'll be happy with the side's discipline too, conceding only four penalties all afternoon. I imagine he'll be less enthusiastic with Hornets ball control, though as, on several occasions, we pushed the last pass a bit and handing better opposition the ball can be very costly indeed.

But it'd be churlish to gripe. York have shown a marked improvement of late and Hornets were mercilessly professional in executing this victory.

And as a dazed Leo Epifania slowly gets his head round the size of the task he has at York, we leave the last word to him: "I didn't expect it to go like that".