BOTTOM club and Lancashire derby rivals Waterloo felt the full force of Sedgley's anger at being overwhelmed by Nottingham the previous week by running in seven tries in an impressive 31-43 victory.

Led by flanker Adam Newton, who claimed a hat-trick of touchdowns, the Tigers had the bonus point sewn up inside 26 minutes, and apart from tries scored in time-added-on at the end of the first and second halfs, 'Loo's response would not have been as much as it was.

WATERLOO                          31

SEDGLEY PARK                     43 

National League Division One 

AGAINST bottom-of-the-table ’Loo the Tigers got back to basics and looked mentally switched on for this hot-pot of a Lancashire derby, with the Manchester side going for the double over their Scouse neighbours.

The visitors’ passion was evident from the first whistle, although a fifth-minute penalty from ’Loo fly-half Alex Davies saw the first points put up on the board after referee Nick Williams appeared to be coming down heavy on the Sedgley pack. However, the home side’s early lead only lasted five minutes before the Tigers began their seven-try rampage.

They regained possession when a punt downfield rebounded off a ’Loo player and fly-half Phil Jones was on hand to round off some neat interplay to go over in between the home posts to give himself the easiest of two-pointers and put his side into a 3-7 lead. From that point up until half-time it was all Sedgley.

On 15 minutes Phil Largan, who had returned to the squad from injury, started the move that ended in touchdown number two. His inside pass to rampaging prop Petrus Du Plessis sent the big South African on his way, and in turn his short pass to fullback Matt Riley in close support created the gap for supporting runner, flanker Adam ‘Dog’ Newton, who took Riley’s slip-pass in his stride before racing to the line to extend his side’s lead to 3-12.

Three minutes later the same trio combined again for another try. This time Riley and Newton sent the strong running Du Plessis over the ’Loo line. Jones’ conversion made it 3-19.

The Tigers maintained the pressure in the spring sunshine with the bonus point secured courtesy of a huge open field tackle from Number 8 Jon Skurr on ’Loo wing Neil Kerfoot. He dispossessed him before snaffling up possession and off-loading to the onrushing Jamie Albinson who had too much pace for the ’Loo defence, and a third Jones two-pointer extended the Tigers’ lead to 3-26.

But they were not finished. Eight minutes later the Tigers won scrum ball on their own 22 and Jamie Albinson sprinted down the right touchline before passing inside to Newton once more in support and he showed a clean pair of heels to go over for his second try to move the score on to 3-31.

’Loo began to force the pace leading up to half-time and pressure on the Sedgley line was rewarded when Skurr was adjudged to have knocked the ball on intentionally close to his own line and referee Williams hit the Tigers with a double whammy – he marched directly to the Sedgley posts to signal a penalty try to ’Loo and then dispatched Skurr to the sidelines with a wave of his yellow card. Davies kicked the conversion to close the gap to 21 points at the turnaround.

The home side predictably emerged for the second half all guns blazing, determined to try to rescue some pride and a point or two along the way. Within a minute of the restart they switched the direction of play twice before creating space for flying South African winger Jan Van DeVenter to burst onto a pop-pass and outpace the Tigers’ defence to the posts. Davies again added the extras to make it 17-31.

Back to 15 men the Tigers began to boss the game once more and on 58 minutes they drove downfield first one way then the other before Jones’ timely pass to Chris Hall created the space for the centre to cruise to the posts and give Riley an easy conversion to make it 17-38.

But ’Loo were not done and on 68 minutes Number 8 Rory McKay sprinted onto a pass after a period of sustained pressure and drove to Sedgley’s posts. Monro’s conversion took the score to 24-38.

Within five minutes the Tigers struck again, with winger Tom Albinson and centre Ian Voortman combining well to send Newton through for his hat-trick try to extend Sedgley’s lead to 19 points.

However, the home side had the last laugh. Just as at the end of the first half, ’Loo struck in time-added-on again. They claimed a four-try bonus point when Van DeVenter won the race to collect a kick-through and a second successful Monro kick supplied the extras as the game finished 31-43 to Sedgley.  

WATERLOO: Murchie, Kerfoot (Nutt 68), Payne, Sliczny, Van DeVenter, Davies (Monro 51), Broxson, O’Keefe, Ince (Ormesher 75), Hopwood, Brandling-Harris (Nugent 54 – Brandling-Harris, blood), Planchant, Smith (Nugent 66), P. Hall (Palmer 60), McKay. Replacements not used: J. Hall and Loader. Tries: Penalty (38), Van DeVenter (41, 81) and McKay (62). Conversions: Davies 2, Monro 1. Penalties: Davies 1. 

SEDGLEY PARK: Riley (Duffy 48), T. Albinson, C. Hall, Voortman, Largan, Jones, J. Albinson (Leck 76), Evans (Gazzola 63), Roddam, Du Plessis, Fourie (Swart 68), Norris, Newton, Ponton, Skurr. Replacements not used: Roberts, Keys and Lamprey. Tries: Jones (10), Newton (14, 34 and 67), Du Plessis (18), J. Albinson (26) and C. Hall (58). Conversions: Jones 3, Riley 1. Yellow cards: Skurr (39).