Hawcoat Park 13 St Benedicts 24

HAWCOAT put in a much improved performance against impressive North Lancs/Cumbria table-toppers St Benedicts.

Injury- hit Hawcoat were on the front foot in the opening 15 minutes with former skipper Jason Priss driving in to make the hard yards and received good support from the likes of Brad Morrow, Will Mallinson and John Donnan.

Stand-in skipper Ashley Mowat made one of his typical runs but the well organised physical defence from Beneditct kept Hawcoat at bay.

The visitors took the lead against the run of play with an unconverted try extending their lead to 12-0 at the break.

Andy Kent was putting in some good tackles up front and Chris Burns, playing his 100th first team game, and fellow centre Andy Graham worked hard.

Hawcoat started strongly after the interval and were rewarded when No 8 Matty Sayle booted over two penalty goals, the second of which in particular was a great effort from 35 metres out.

However, Benedicts lifted their game and again, after a good spell of combination handling between forwards and backs, the ball was stretched out wide and a missed clearance kick allowed them to again score wide out.

But once again through the likes of Priss and Mowat up front the Maroon and Whites took the game back to the visitors and had a spell camped in their 22 testing their strong defence.

Scrum half Anthony Munday was as usual thriving in a physical game driving his forwards on and eventually Mike Lightfoot forced his way over for a deserved try.

Sayle’s conversion gave Hawcoat a real sniff of getting something out of the game.

However, Benedicts lifted their game to score another try out wide.

As the final whistle went the last play of the game was Will Mallinson driving for the line and getting bundled into touch through the corner flag.

St Benedicts deserved their win but there was a lot of good things in the maroon and whites' performance, which will be needed for the forthcoming important games.

Newcomer Elliot McDermott showed up well when coming on as replacement and other replacements Ryan Potgieter and Jonny Burrows also added something when joining the play.

Referee Tyrone Castles had his usual good game in the middle.