Rugby - Six-try Mere perk up to peg back Colne (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Rugby - Six-try Mere perk up to peg back Colne

1:50pm Thursday 10th March 2011 in Sport

Windermere 36, Colne & Nelson 11.

AFTER last week's opposition failed to show up, Winder-mere should have been hungry for North Lancashire League action, but it did not look that way in the first half.

Although Mere attacked repeatedly early on, each time an error handed possession back to Colne.

Instead it was Colne who took advantage of their forays into the Windermere 22, coming away with two penalties and a fine try.

From the base of a scrum, the Colne No8 and his scrum-half created the extra man, then switched inside, wrong-footing the Windermere defence.

Trailing 11-0, Windermere drove up the pitch and Stafford burst through the Colne defence for a try and cut the gap to four points.

After their half-time talking-to, Mere showed energy and aggression and the points came thick and fast.

After five minutes Sheasby made a half break and stood up in the tackle to create a maul before he finished the movement by breaking away from the tail to drive over the Colne line.

Seven minutes later, Brown touched down from another powerful maul.

Another home try followed when Mere stole Colne's scrum and a neat back-row move created space for stand-off Mike Proctor to squeeze through under the posts.

It was not long before another Windermere scrum yielded possession and Dan Nield made ground before he popped the ball to Harrison, whose reverse-pass put Curry over for another five points.

With five minutes left , the Mere forwards created more impetus and this time veteran prop Mark Ireland crossed in vintage style with Colne players hanging off him like Christmas tree decorations.

The usually reliable boot of James Crawford did not materialise, but the tally of six tries and two conversions, was entirely satisfactory.

Colne and Nelson played superbly in the dying minutes and were unlucky not to turn their efforts into points.