Rugby - Mere lose scrum-half but still give Old Boys a mauling (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Rugby - Mere lose scrum-half but still give Old Boys a mauling

3:40pm Thursday 24th March 2011 in Sport

Windermere 59, St Mary's Old Boys 3.

THREE tries in quick succession put Windermere in control and although they lost scrum-half Mike Crawford to a red card, they racked up a healthy score.

Once chance was squandered before coach Raymond Lee’s urging from the touchline had the desired effect and Windermere stole St Mary’s lineout ball and stand-off Proctor headed for the line.

Although dragged down short, Benson picked up and stretched to score.

Within a minute, an impresssive rolling maul had deposited Blenkharn over for a second try, converted by Crawford, and man of the match Dan Harrison scored a third shortly afterwards.

St Mary's woke up and defended robustly but after what appeared to be a spear tackle on Wood., Crawford went to break up the melee but shown a red card for his efforts, while the original perpetrator from St Mary's was sent to the sinbin.

Down to 14 men, Windermere came back with enthusiasm and after another textbook maul, the ball was spread through the backs and winger Jack Holmes scored within conversion range.

Next it was the turn of the other winger, Lightburn as some mazy running put him over in the corner.

Crawford’s superb conversion made the Windermere tally up to 33.

On the stroke of half time, St Mary's visited the Windermere 22 and put themselves on the scoreboard with a penalty.

Soon after the break, Windermere's forwards executed a neat move as Brown broke from a lineout and made some ground, popped to Blenkharn who brushed aside two St Mary's players to add his second try.

In the course of this passage of play, the St Mary's player who had been shown the yellow card was detected committing further skullduggery and sent off.

Windermere dominate for another 20 minutes as first Benson scored from neat work by Lightburn, then Brown took a short pass on the burst and galloped 20 yards to cross before a typical individual effort from Proctor concluded the scoring.