Wet and windy conditions made it difficult, and it took 20 minutes for the first incident to happen, with Scott Richardson shown a yellow for Hoppers after a number of penalties.

And they were made to pay, Campbell dotting down from the rolling maul almost immediately after.

Hoppers did well from the restart, playing through the phases and threatened to break through. They did get themselves on the board when Greg Smith slotted his kick for three points.

Still with the extra man, Sheffield scored from yet another rolling maul, through Campbell once more. Callum Posa excellently converted his kick for the full seven points.

It was a first half hat trick for Campbell from another very similar try, which gave the Yorkshire side a two-score lead going in at half time.

And Sheffield grabbed their bonus point early on in the second 40, the ball going coast to coast before going wide to Christian Hooper who cut in and sniped over.

Hoppers eventually got their first try, Jenson Hamilton pulled off a remarkable run, evading several tackles with some incredible pace, before playing in Rob Willetts who went straight through the middle and over.

Sammy Russell was shown a yellow for a number of penalties, and Posa put away his penalty for a 15-point lead.

Both teams struggled to keep the ball for some time, before Archie Crapper was shown a yellow for Sheffield.

Preston managed to grab a final try at the death, Wilkinson produced a magnificent diving finish into the corner, but despite a great Alex Ward conversion, they fell short of a losing bonus point

First team coach Danny Maher said he was pleased with the improvement from last week, but they still have work to do.

“I think we showed them too much respect in that first half,” said Maher.

“We asked the team to front up in defence today, we were off the pace physically last week but today I felt we were there physically.

“But the penalties killed us, they kept kicking down into our 5 metre, and mauling.

“We stopped about 10 mauls, and still conceded three, we can’t stop every one.

“We defended well but you can’t win games without the ball, and we didn’t have enough of it and that needs to be better next time.”