St. Annes 18 Hornets 62
Hornets ease into next round
No sneakin' through for St Annes
It was a humbling return to Spotland for the Sneakin' Deakin Brothers. St
Annes' coach Chris, worked Sooty-like on the touchline by his itchy-footed
brother Steve, saw his hard-working side systematically dismantled by Hornets.
Indeed, it took only five minutes for Hornets to start the ball rolling -
a flat pass from Watson hit at speed by Smith for a 20 metre stroll in. Credit
to St Annes, though - they dug deep and got stuck in. For close on 20 minutes
they weathered a barrage from the Hornets Pack. Led by barnstorming Andy
Grundy and non-stop Dave Stephenson, the Hornets six gave themselves a thorough
workout - and having worked good field position Pachniuk found Owen who stepped
his way through a static defence to give nanyn an easy conversion.
And with half time beckoning, Hornets found time and space to create two
more tries - a carbon copy Watson-to-Smith score, then Mick Nanyn holding
up the ball well under pressure wide out, finding the supporting Warren Ayres
who dived in.
Half time 20-nil and, for all their efforts, St Annes had come up with nowt.
The first five minutes of the second half, Hornets hit the gas pedal. From
the first set of six, Mayberry's neat pass put Nanyn in to score. From the
next posession Smith found himself on the end of a Watson and Ayres combination
to stroll in. Within two minutes, it was Owen again - backing up at close
range to step past a defender to score.
From 20-0, St Annes were staring down the barrel of a good old-fashioned
tonking, but they played themselves back down the field (courtesy of a string
of peculiar penalties from Monsieur Frileux le French Referee), where ex-Hornet
Jason best crashed in from a Badby pass.
It was a mere blip on the radar, though. Good support from Owen saw him grab
his hat-trick try from a Watson pass. Watson repeated the favour five minutes
later, Danny Wood this time the beneficiary.
With the game and any hope of an upset having vanished, St Annes had their
best spell of the game working two well taken tries from From Andy Sands
and Craig Milner.
Hornets shrugged off the irritation, went back up the field and continued
where they left off.
James Bunyan hitting another exquisite Watson flat ball to score wide out,
then props Andy Grundy and Matt Long exchanging passes for Long to score
right on the hooter.
In the end, Hornets did everything expected of them. It's a no-win situation
in cup ties like this. Score a hundred and people will say, "Well, they're
only amateurs". And if the opposition give you a game they'll say, "You weren't
very good."
As it was, Hornets scored a bagful and gave St Annes a chance to give a good
account of themselves.
But there was no little satisfaction in the stands that this particular Deakin
family enterprise was reminded of its place.
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