LIONS SCORE 40 IN SOLID OPENER

30 January 2024

NORTH WALES CRUSADERS 12 SWINTON LIONS 40

IAN RIGG at Stadiwm CSM, Sunday 28 January 2024

Swinton Lions got their 1895 Cup campaign off the mark with a good victory over Crusaders on a windy afternoon at Colwyn Bay. Crusaders had early pressure on the Lions line after a penalty but lost the ball close to the line and on three minutes Declan Patton kicked a forty-twenty and from the pressure on the line Josh Eaves went over by the posts and Patton converted. Crusaders then had two good chances straight after and both fell to Kieran Taylor out on the right but on both attempts the ball was lost. The Lions went further ahead on fifteen minutes when Rhys Williams, Matty Chrimes and Jake Spedding combined to send Dan Abram in by the posts and Patton converted again. Carl Forster was sent to the sinbin for a trip on twenty-six minutes. From the resulting penalty the Lions went downfield and added their third try when Jack Houghton went close but from the play the ball George Roby went over, and Patton converted again. Jono Smith was sent off by the referee just after the conversion was taken for alleged foul language. The Lions fourth try came seven minutes from the break when Mitch Cox broke clear to feed Chrimes and he raced forty metres to score in the corner and Patton added a curling conversion from the touchline. Patton and Jayden Hatton held up Ryan Ellis with a couple of minutes of the half left and in the dying seconds an incident at a scrum was put on report.

A good start for the Lions in the second half with lots of pressure on the line with the best chance coming to Williams on fifty minutes but the ball just ran away from him as he went for the corner. Patton then added a try four minutes later after a break by Lewis Hall and he also added then conversion. Forster was then held up for Crusaders before Cox scored on the right to give him his one hundredth point for the Lions, but Patton could not convert this one. Crusaders had a good spell midway through the half and this paid off on sixty-seven minutes when Pat Ah Van crashed in under the posts and Owain Abel added the conversion. Abram grabbed his second with five minutes left when Jordy Gibson broke through to feed the ball to him and Patton again converted. From the kick off Chrimes could not hold the bounce of the ball and from the pressure near the line Ben Evans went over on his debut for the try with Abel converting. The Lions finished the game strongly on the Crusaders line and move on to next week’s home tie against Widnes in good spirits.

LIONS
1 Dan Abram
2 Matty Chrimes
3 Jake Spedding
4 Jayden Hatton
5 Rhys Williams
6 Declan Patton
7 Jordy Gibson
10 Gav Bennion
14 Josh Eaves
13 Mikey Wood
11 Gav Rodden
12 Mitch Cox
16 Lewis Hall

Subs (all used)
9 George Roby
20 Jack Houghton
24 Jordan Case
17 Matty Fletcher

Tries: Eaves (4), Abram (15,75), Roby (28), Chrimes (33), Patton (54), Cox (59)
Goals: Patton 6/7

CRUSADERS
1 Owain Abel
16 Jack Holmes
3 Kieran Taylor
4 Matty Reid
5 Pat Ah Van
7 Toby Hughes
26 Reece Bushell
8 Ben Evans
19 Joe Baldwin
10 Chris Barratt
11 Ryan Ellis
12 Matt Unsworth
13 Carl Forster

Subs (all used)
9 Patrick Rainford
15 Shaun Costello
27 Jono Smith
22 Adam Carr

Tries: Ah Van (67), Evans (78)
Goals: Abel 2/2

Sin-bin: Forster (26) Tripping
Dismissal: Smith (28) Foul Language

Penalties: 9-6
Half-time: 0-24
Referee: Scott Mikalauskas
Attendance: 520