Bradford & Bingley 47 Lymm 9

The Bees have believed that a big win was always just around the corner and so it proved as Lymm were outplayed in all departments.

The introduction of Phil Greaves at number ten gave the hosts better balance as they had someone with experience and a huge boot to get them back into opposition territory as quickly as possible, rather than trying to play rugby deep in their own half which has proved costly on more than one occasion this season. With Greaves heaving the ball 50 metres down field when required, the Bees were able to play open rugby in Lymm territory and defend far higher up the pitch.

The brute strength of Richard Tafa started the scoreboard ticking over in the third minute. The Bees’ top try scorer picked up the ball 25 metres out and broke through several weak tackles to plough over.

Richard Scull converted and added a penalty on 17 minutes, with Lymm getting one back on the half hour.

A candidate for try of the season came on 33 minutes as Tafa again broke straight up the middle, with four or five Lymm players bouncing off him. Just as it looked like he had taken on one too many, he flipped the ball overhead to Martyn Mitch-ell, who zipped past the cover to score.

Scull converted before a Lymm penalty made it 17-6 at the break.

The second period opened with another Scull penalty and a Tom Bills drop goal on 47 minutes.

Lymm pulled back a penalty, only to see Tom Kanouros latch on to a stray ball and run clear for another five-pointer.

Scull continued his immaculate form with the boot to stretch the lead to 30-9 after 50 minutes.

Soon afterwards Lymm were reduced to 14 men as they lost a player to a red card in a dust up with Bees winger Adam Wellington.

From the resulting penalty the Bees went 24 points ahead. The next score came when Tafa stole the ball in a maul and skipped away for his 11th try of the season.

The rout was complete when Bees skipper Guy Ford crashed over from short range and Scull converted.