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Sticky start is Crocs' undoing
Old Crossleyans 22 - Broughton Park 32 A BRAVE second half fightback was not enough for Crocs as they slipped out of the EDF Energy Intermediate Cup.
And on balance, the visitors from the other side of the Pennines just about deserved their triumph as the home side failed to recover from a shaky start and did not get the measure of their opponents until it was too late.
Crossleyans were under pressure from the start as they failed to collect a deep kick off, and from the resulting scrum, the ball was moved quickly wide for Park's Atominey to score in the corner.
Within five minutes, some weak tackling had allowed Broughton Park a second try, and only then did Crocs start to wake up with a series of powerful drives from centres Ryan Hammond and Neil Richardson.
But progress was difficult in the face of a strong wind and much of the hard work was quickly undone by the boot of Broughton Park fly half Paddy O'Donnell, and the visitors then stretched their lead when a good forward drive resulted in a converted try for No 8 Hanby.
The Crocs pack started to cause a few problems with some good drives by Mark Thomas and Adam Hinchliffe then a great break through the centre from prop Richard Thomas was stopped on the visitors' 22 yard line.
But just before the break, the home side spilled the ball and it was clinically passed out wide for a Knight try which made the half time score an ominous 0-24.
Coach Jonathan Davies made some half time changes with Trent Beaver being replaced by Terry Michael and Richard Thomas by Paul Michael, while Jack Hammond replaced Richardson in the backs.
It seemed to work as Crocs put Broughton Park under pressure from the kick off, but the visitors powered back and though good tackling from Rob Oliver and Andrew Day initially kept them out, a McMahon try eventually made it 29-0.
Crocs then showed good strength of character to dig deep and started to find a few gaps, with Chris Duffy and Hinchliffe linking up well to find Dan Bancroft in space, and though his run to the corner was stopped just short, the referee spotted an infringement and the penalty was quickly taken by Richard Wheale who powered over to finally get Crocs on the scoreboard.
From the restart, the home side began to grow in confidence, with Wood and Michael making good yards but they were hampered when Hammond was shown the yellow card for hands in the ruck.
But with 14 men, Crocs continued to attack and a nice inside pass from Joel Hinchliffe sent Chris Seymour in for a well earned try, and Duffy then made a clean break and passed on to James Wainwright who raced away from the defence to cross the line and pull the score back to 32-17.
In the dying seconds, Hammond made a great pick up and released Wainwright who ran 30 metres before being tackled by the covering full back, but Bancroft was in support to finish the move and make the final score a more respectable 32-22.
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Weather for Halifax
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
