photo by Ian Lovell

Celtic Crusaders made it three wins out of three in the Northern Rail Cup on Saturday night after putting on outstanding first half performance to overcome Sheffield Eagles 34-14 at the Brewery Field.

Over a thousand fans braved the bitterly cold night to see the Crusaders gain their 16th straight win, but the sub-zero temperature didn’t affect the home side as they sealed the match in the first half going 20 points up in as many minutes and the result was never in doubt after that.

“We were outstanding in the first 20 minutes,” said Crusaders’ coach John Dixon. “They didn’t have that much possession. we used the ball really well and we skipped away to a match-winning lead early in the game. It was a pretty rewarding effort from us.”

Eagles came back well in the second half and actually out-scored the Crusaders three tries to two following the interval. But with the half-time score at 26-0, the game was already won. However the visitors did themselves no favours by wasting their superior penalty count with two of the kicks criminally failing to reach touch.

Dixon gave credit to his gallant opponents.

“Every time you give Sheffield a chance to play some football, they’re going to put some pressure on you,” he added. “This is a side that reached the National League One play-offs last year and we expected them to come back. They did and scored a couple of tries which was a credit to them, but the game was never in any doubt today. We opened very well, controlled the game from the outset and there was only one team who was ever going to win.”

The first points were on the board after only three minutes. Ian Webster went over in the corner with Jace Van Dijk adding the tricky conversation.

It was 12-0 from the next attack when the prolific Tony Duggan forced his way over the line and Van Dijk once kicked the goal.

Mark Lennon finished off a fine passing move by grounding in the corner on 14 minutes for Crusaders’ third try of the evening while Mark Dalle Cort went over from dummy half on the fifth tackle to bring up the 20 point mark in as many minutes.

And Lennon went under the sticks for his second try just before the interval with Van Dijk kicking the extras to make the half-time score a deservedly one-sided 26-0.

There could have been a further try from kick-off in the second half but Paul Ballard was stopped in his tracks and the ball went into touch rebounding off Rob Worrincy. But from the resulting scrum, Damien Quinn forced his way over to make the score 30-0.

However Eagles fought back and finally got on the board in the 48th minute after Mitch Stringer went in under the sticks

Rob Worrincy added another in the corner from the first set after kick-off to bring the score back to 30-10.

There could have been a Crusaders try back on the hour mark but Tony Duggan was stopped a metre short of the line.

However they did go over the line again a few minutes later when Paul Ballard latched onto the end of a Van Dijk bomb to ground.

Worrincy added another Eagles try with 15 minutes remaining to again bring the margin back to 20 points

But Crusaders didn’t give up hope a further score and they were denied a try just before the end as David Tangata-Toa was held up over the line.

CELTIC CRUSADERS
1. Tony Duggan
2. Paul Ballard
3. Luke Dyer
4. Mark Dalle Cort
5. Mark Lennon
6. Ian Webster
7. Jace Van Dijk
8. Jordan James
9. Neil Budworth
10. Gareth Dean
11. Terry Martn
12. Chris Beasley
13. Damien Quinn                   

Subs:
14. Rod Peake
15. Aaron Summers
16. Jamie I’Anson
17. David Tangata-Toa            

Tries: Webster (3), Duggan (6), Lennon (14, 34), Dalle Cort (20), Quinn (43), Ballard (61)
Goals: Van Dijk 3/7

SHEFFIELD EAGLES
1.    Johnny Woodcock
2.    Danny Mills
3.    Mike Roby
4.    Dane McDonald
5. Rob Worrincy
6. Brendon Lindsay
7. Dominic Brambani
8. Jack Howieson
9. Craig Cook
10. Kyle Bibb
11. Nick Turnbull
12. Tommy Trayler
13. Adam Hayes

Subs:
14. Grant Edwards
15. Mitch Stringer
16. Tom Buckenham
17. Ryan Hepworth

Tries: Stringer (48), Worrincy (51, 65)
Goals: Woodcock 1/2

Attendance: 1,006
Men of the Match:
Crusaders – Jordan James
Eagles – Rob Worrincy
Half-time: 26-0
Referee: Jamie Leahy (Dewsbury)
Penalties: 8-9
Scoring Sequence: 6-0, 12-0, 16-0, 20-0, 26-0, 30-0, 30-6, 30-10, 34-10, 34-14
Gamebreaker: Quinn’s try just after half-time made the score 30-0 and despite a gallant effort from the Eagles, they were never going to come back from that.
Gamestar: Welsh international Jordan James with a dominant performance at prop.
Match Rating: 3/5
Weather: Bitterly cold

article by Ian Golden
16 February 2008