By Ian Golden
March 5 2007

Match report from the Northern Rail cup as the Celtic Crusaders beat London Skolars away from home by 28 points to 4, for details read on. LONDON SKOLARS 4 CELTIC CRUSADERS 28

By Ian Golden - http://www.crusadersrl.com

Celtic Crusaders took a further step towards the knock-out stages of the Northern Rail Cup on Sunday after easing to a 28-4 win over London Skolars at the New River Stadium.

This result means that if the Wales’ only professional rugby league side beat Leigh Centurions at the Brewery Field on Sunday 18th March, they will qualify at the probable expense of the cup holders.

But Crusaders’ Operations Manager Gerald McCarthy isn’t even thinking about the Leigh tie yet.

“We’ve got the road to Wembley in the Carnegie Challenge Cup to think about before we face Leigh again,” McCarthy said: “We have to put the Northern Rail Cup firmly out of our minds for a week and concentrate our efforts on beating Eastmoor Dragons at the Brewery Field next Saturday. Eastmoor are in the division below us and teams from that league are constantly knocking out teams from ours in the Challenge Cup. We’ve had a good win today but we can’t be complacent.”

The constant rain throughout the day produced slippery muddy conditions and handling errors aplenty. It took 13 minutes for the Crusaders to open the scoring. Following a strong attacking period, Geraint Davies forced his way through three of Skolars back-line to ground. Damien Quinn converted.

They extended their lead to 12-0 on 19 minutes. Jace Van Dijk laid the ball off to Quinn who stretched well to place the ball over the line while under pressure then converting his own try.

A fine Paul Ballard run gave the Crusaders a third try on 26 minutes. They were denied a fourth just five minutes later when Damien Quinn was pulled back after receiving a forward pass from Hywel Davies while Skolars’ Corey Simms was also denied a score in a similar fashion not long after.

But the Crusaders scored again on 37 minutes when former Wales RU sevens international, Craig Richards showed his excellent pace and ran in his debut rugby league try. Quinn kicked the tricky conversion to make the half-time score 22-0 to the visitors.

The rain, that had turned the pitch into a mudbath, continued throughout the second half making further scoring very difficult. In addition, it was near to impossible to tell which player was which by looking at the numbers on the back of the shirts as all 26 players were now brown from head to toe.

Skolars got back into the game 15 minutes into the second half when Corey Simms dived onto Paul Thorman’s fine grubber kick. Crusaders restored the balance ten minutes later when Ballard scored an excellent individual try with man of the match Quinn again superbly kicking the extras to put the final score on 28-4 to the Welsh.

The Crusaders gave a debut to Valley Cougars’ youngster, the Wales and Great Britain under 18 international, Owen Lewis from Pontypridd, who came on in the second half. Lewis said: “I thoroughly enjoyed it - the boys were really encouraging around me, telling me what to do and helping me out a lot. Hopefully I’ll be able to get into the side again for next Saturday’s Challenge Cup match in Bridgend.”

London Skolars: Pete Hodgkinson, Corey Simms, Steve Green, Austen Aggrey, Kurt Pittman, Paul Thorman, Alan Barker, Frank Reid, Martyn Benson, Mike Castle, Dave Brown, Jermaine Coleman. Subs: Gareth Honor, Joe Price, Richard Louw, Ashley Tozer.

Tries: Simms (55)
Goals: Thorman 0/1

Celtic Crusaders: Richard Johnston, Grant Epton, Paul Ballard, Mark Dalle Cort, Craig Richards, Rob Toshack, Jace Van Dijk, Josh Cale, Andy Boothroyd, Gareth Dean, Dean Fitzgerald, Geraint Davies, Damien Quinn. Subs: Neil Budworth, Lee Jones, Owen Lewis, Hywel Davies.

Tries: G.Davies (13), Quinn (19), Ballard (26, 65), Richards (37)
Goals: Quinn 4/5

Referee: Ben Thaler

Half-time: 0-22