Hornet 32 Swinton 9 : The press had this to sayOur Man at the Match had this to say : Hornets stroll it.
In a week where Swinton's chairman told anyone who'd listen that - despite his club voting for winter rugby - he'd much prefer summer, he demonstrated his commitment to the summer/Swinton cause by going on his holidays and missing the game.
But, to be honest, he'll be glad he didn't see this one.
You never know what you're going to get when you play Swinton. Down the years they've hammered us and rolled over in equal measure, but - as Sunday proved - this season they've gone for the 'boring us into submission' tactic.
Apparently fielding their only 17 players, they crumpled as early as the fifth minute as Danny Wood took advantage of a favourable bounce from a Latham Tawhai grubber to touch down. He converted his own try and at 6-0, Hornets looked nice and comfortable.
But Swinton stiffened up. For 15 minutes they provided stern resistance to Hornets pressure, and even contrived to equalise the scores after 21 minutes as Holdstock came into the line at pace from close in to crash over.
Five minutes later, ex-Hornet Phil Waring - who had a quite appalling game at scrum half - knocked over a drop goal and at 6-7 down, Hornets decided that they'd had enough fannying around.
Swinton's lead lasted all of 180 seconds. Dave Larder made a huge break through the Lions' defence in centre field, he pointed to the spot where he wanted big Bren O'Meara to run, he duly obliged and received an inch perfect pass to sprint in by the posts. 180 seconds later Hornets punished Swinton again.
Phil Vievers skied an attempted 40-20 which was fielded under no pressure on his own 20 metre line by Sean Cooper. 'Tommy' set off upfield and found enough space to eat up a good 40 metres bhefore handing a neat inside ball to the supporting Paul Owen, who sucked in tacklers before popping the ball back outside to Matt Calland, who arrived at full throttle.
With 40 metres still to go and the defence gathering, Calland showed great strength and pace, swatting off Vievers and Russell to score. Quite sublime.
With the half ticking away and Swinton reduced to spoiling tactics, the game came to a dramatic head. Chris Newall squeezed Danny Sculthorpe's testicles in the tackle, Danny saw red and, with Newall running away and covering up, he landed a series of haymaking punches square in his face. Newall went down like a sack of spuds, Joe Berry got ten minutes for 'intervening' and Scully got a stern talking to.
Newall was removed from the field for his own safety to a barrage of abuse from the main stand, his broken cheekbone a lesson that grabbing another man's balls is a practice undertaken only by shirtlifters or idiots.
At 16-7, Swinton already looked like a spent force, but they confounded home and away supporters alike by taking the resulting penalty shot at goal to reduce their deficit to 16-9. Stirring stuff!
Twelve man Hornets started the second half in determined mood. Latham Tawhai kicked a slide rule 40-20 in the first set of six and, a minute later, Danny Sculthorpe produced an immaculate one handed pass to Cooper who scored in the corner.
For the next 20 minutes, not much happened. Hornets rotated some forwards and moved Watson, Owen and Gartland around in key positions and, in the manner of an adult keeping a flailing child at arm's length as they vainly attempt to land increasingly weaker punches, let Swinton run themselves into increasingly pointless circles.
In the closing phase, Hornets decided that they - and we - had been bored quite enough. On the hour, Owen blasted through a paper thin Swinton line to find Steve Gartland on his shoulder. Garty ran in from 30 metres and converted his own try for good measure.
With five minutes remaining, Stevo made a bustling break close in and his nicely timed short ball found Joe Berry approching at speed. 'Chuck' crashed through the tacklers and found himself with only the fullback to beat. Swinton no.1 Jim Evans decided that attempting to tackle Joe Berry at full tilt wasn't the best way to end his Sunday afternoon and obligingly let Joe run straight over the top of him to score. Woody Converted. Job done.
Again, while clocking up a convincing score, Hornets were less than convincing. Too much chopping and changing of players in key positions in the second 40 upset our rhythm and diffused out momentum. Individually there were some good performances - Steve Gartland played his usual direct, uncomplicated game that took us forward, Paul Owen whirred like a dynamo and caused Swinton problems all afternoon, Brendan O'Meara - again in the wars with a badly cut ear - showed real steel on defence and menacing power on attack. But primarily, this was the Danny Sculthorpe show. He tortured Swinton all afternoon with his bullocking runs, wide-out running and a passing repertoire that most Superleague stand-offs would kill for.
As for Swinton, where they go from here is anyone's guess. They were very disappointing in every department - including the boardroom.