Old Crossleyans overcome stern Phoenix test
Old Crossleyans were made to work hard by Regional 2 North East bottom side Doncaster Phoenix but they came away with a valuable bonus point victory.
Crocs were plagued by handling errors as Phoenix chased their first league win of the season but the visitors did enough to clinch a 34-28 triumph.
Crossleyans struck first after six minutes when slick interplay between Chris Vine, Alex Thompson and Brockson Brown allowed James Johnson to offload to Josh Hunt, who crossed for the opening try.
Doncaster responded with a converted driving maul to lead 7-5 after 15 minutes.
Brown restored the visitors’ lead midway through the half after sustained pressure from two lineouts close to the line but the lead was short-lived and Doncaster scored from close range to move 14-10 ahead.
Handling errors continued to interrupt promising Crocs attacks but after good breakdown work from Seb Da Silva and a penalty to the corner, Jacob Pollard powered over for a converted try to regain the lead.
On the stroke of half-time, quick thinking from Vine released Hunt, who offloaded to Johnson for another converted score, sending Crossleyans into the break 22-14 in front.
An early second-half injury to Brown disrupted Crocs’ rhythm and frustration grew as further chances went begging. However, Hunt produced a perfect pass to send Thompson over for the fourth, bonus-point try.
Doncaster fought back strongly and after sustained pressure, they forced their way over to reduce the deficit but when the hosts knocked-on from the restart, Crocs hit back.
From the resulting scrum Jacob Pollard surged clear for his second try of the afternoon, converted by Hunt, to extend the lead to 34-21.
A yellow card for James Johnson invited late pressure and Doncaster capitalised with another converted try to close the gap to six points.
In a frantic end to the game, a dangerous Doncaster attack was halted by a crucial forward-pass decision before tempers flared, resulting in a red card for a Doncaster player and a yellow for Crocs captain Tom Metcalf.
The victory leaves third-bottom Crossleyans two points clear of Pontefract and level on points with Wetherby.