LIONS BLOW AWAY WHITEHAVEN TO MAKE IT TWO WINS FROM TWO

**** Photo credit Brett Thurlow ****

SWINTON LIONS 40

WHITEHAVEN 12

IAN RIGG Heywood Road Sunday

Swinton Lions made it two wins from two with a seven try display against Whitehaven who had a good first half and went in level at the break. Louie Roberts put the Lions ahead in the third minute when Reece Briers put him through a gap and Briers added the simple conversion. Haven tried to hit back quickly but a ball handling error let them down, and it was the Lions who went further ahead on seventeen minutes when Josh Eaves sent Briers through a gap to score by the posts and he converted. Lions knocked on in the first tackle after the restart, and this put Haven in a good position on the field, and they took advantage when a nice kick from Ciaran Walker found Ellison Holgate and he scored under the posts and Walker converted. Some good play then by Haven and Jordan Burns was causing the Lions defence lots of headaches trying to get his side over the tryline. Burns had two good chances on two attacks and on the second one he was held up. Holgate forced a goal line drop out in the last minute of the half and with seconds left before the hooter Brad Brennan took three defenders over the line to score under the posts and Walker converted to send the teams in level. Brennan almost got a second straight after the restart but knocked on just short of the line. Tom Ratchford then knocked on for the Lions, but it was he who on fifty minutes sent out a nice pass for Trent Kelly-Duffy to go over by the posts and Briers converted. Walker then kicked a forty-twenty for his side, but it came to nothing when Sam Woodend couldn’t take a long pass to score in the corner. From this point on the Lions were in total control and on sixty-two minutes a nice short kick by Jordy Gibson produced a second try for Kelly-Duffy and Briers converted again. Pat Ah Van scored his first Lions try on sixty-eight minutes when Gibson and Briers combined to send him over in the corner, but no conversion from Briers. Roberts added his second try with ten minutes left after a nice pass from Jordan Brown and Briers converted. Woodend had another chance with six minutes left, but it was Roberts who completed his hat trick with five minutes left after Haven knocked on in the Lions half and some good build up play saw him race away to score on the right and Briers again converted. There was more Haven pressure in the final minutes, but the Lions defence held them out and the game was won.

MATCHFACTS

LIONS

1 Louie Roberts

32 Pat Ah Van

33 Dante Morley-Samuels

20 Adam Jones

5 Harry Higham

6 Reece Briers

36 Jordy Gibson

22 Jordan Brown

9 Josh Eaves

10 Ben Killan