Anselmians 79-7 Orrell - match report

It may seem a little churlish to find fault with a team which out-scored their opponents by ten tries to one but the simple fact was that there were at least half a dozen more tries left out on the park which went begging but for simple handling errors or wrong options.

That said, the 250 or so supporters who turned out on a sunny Autumn afternoon were treated to some scintillating rugby which had them already considering what life might be like in the higher divisions.

Performances such as this will surely bring the crowds in even bigger numbers for subsequent home fixtures, the next being a tough encounter against Warrington on October 2. Before then, though, Saints face a trek up the M6 to Cockermouth next Saturday.

Saturday's match started brightly in the sunshine after just one minute, when, from a penalty line-out, 15 yards from Orrell's line, the forwards gave an early indication of dominance, securing the line-out and driving mercilessly for Paul Sherlock to touch down with Dai Morley adding the extras.

Anselmians' dominant front row, Degsy Salisbury, Danny Salisbury and Steve Brookes. Photo: Derek Salisbury SNR

Just three minutes later, Man of the Match, Ewan Nolan, an accolade shared with the mercurial George Manger at scrum-half, finished off some fine exchanges between backs and forwards to score the first of his brace of tries for the afternoon. Another successful conversion by Morley.

Shell-shocked Orrell, 14 points down after just five minutes, now started to get into the game and provided stern resistance until they were caught off-side on 25 minutes to gift another three points to Dai Morley, who seemed to have found his kicking boots for this match.

Still contending strongly despite being overwhelmed by a powerful Saints' scrummage and dominant line-out, Orrell replied immediately with a converted try of their own. 17-7.

It wasn't long though - 31 minutes - before another powerfully driven maul put hooker, Danny Salisbury, over near the corner, Morley, again, topping up with another two points.

The half finished at 31-7 after Nolan's second try of the mach and Morley's fourth successful goal kick.

By now, Orrell were succumbing to Saints' physical dominance up-front which sapped their strength and had their backs and loose-forwards rooted to their back feet.

It was no surprise that the penalty count was very much in Saints' favour and just a few minutes into the half another off-side call gave sharp-shooter, Morley, another three points to his tally.

The front row pressure was now really telling such that the game went to uncontested scrums soon into the half.

But still, from static scrums, the backs and loose forwards treated the crowd to some dazzling interplay to create six more tries by; James Otutaha, Craig Jones, Paul Selwood, Dai Morley, Tommy Banks and Tom Gilbert; four of them converted by Morley.

Credit must go to Orrell for battling doggedly throughout. and playing their part in a hugely entertaining match.

Saints will face much sterner tests than this, but with an average of 59 points for, to 11 against across the four matches played so far this season, it does seem that the squad is sufficiently strong to mount a serious challenge for promotion in new coaches Derel Salisbury and Tommy Banks', first season in charge.