Played in torrential rain throughout, Celtic Crusaders earned a superb 38-6 win over Widnes Vikings at the Brewery Field to go temporarily level at the top of the Co-operative National League One table with Halifax.

The Crusaders showed that they had strength in depth for this, their third win over the Vikings this season, in front of yet another excellent crowd with almost 3,600 fans turning up despite the weather and it being a Thursday night.

Going into the match with a string of injuries and with Neale Wyatt only sneaking past a late fitness test on Thursday night, the Crusaders chose not to emulate the Vikings by delving into the transfer market for Super League loan signings. Instead coach John Dixon decided to have faith in the local talent and it was this talent didn’t let him down.

Welsh international Aled James, the former Widnes centre who started his rugby league at Cardiff Demons, was making his first senior appearance since 2006 after a year in rugby union. Now a development officer with the Crusaders, he has also spent 2008 captaining the Crusaders Colts to top of the Conference National. He crossed the line twice with one score being controversially disallowed, while Ben Flower, a close-season convert from local rugby union, was playing only his sixth senior game of the season. He also added to the points tally with his second try of the year.

“We’ve had some injuries this week,” Dixon said. “When you miss players like Josh Hannay and Darren Mapp on any given day you depend upon your young players to come in, put their hands up and have a go so I thought Ben Flower and Aled James played their parts for the Crusaders. They did the job that was expected of them and credit to them. I’m really pleased for them and pleased for us as a club that we can have players like that who come in and play that well.”

Crusaders put on an outstanding performance for the full 80 minutes. They maintained their concentration throughout and their level of intensity in attack was matched by their quality and hard work in defence to deny Widnes not just a bonus point but not even allowing them to get into double figures.

Crusaders took a 10-0 lead after two quick tries on 13 and 15 minutes with French referee Thierry Alibert having to go to the video referee for confirmation on each occasion.

The first was after winning a scrum on Widnes’ ten metre line and Anthony Blackwood forced his way over from dummy half after a couple of tackles. Lennon converted.

And from the first set after kick-off, Crusaders were given a penalty for offside and a fine passing move saw Mark Dalle Cort beating his markers to dive in the corner for Crusaders second.

Dalle Cort could have had a second as the game was approaching the half hour mark but his attempt to reach a pass in the torrid conditions proved fruitile and the slippery ball caused him to knock on as he was near to the line.

The third try came dead on 30 minutes. Aled James ran 30 metres to create the chance and from the next tackle, Neil Budworth and Luke Dyer combined to set up James to dive in the corner to score against his old club. Lennon did well to add the extras.

James, having an outstanding game, should have scored a second try just minutes later when he pounced on a dreadful error from Gavin Dodd to ground the ball. But, despite the try looking more certain than the first two of the evening, Monsieur Alibert decided not to discuss the situation with video referee Ray Tennant and disallowed the score, saying that Ian Hardman had reached the ball first.

However Crusaders won a penalty straight from the goal-line drop out and Lennon’s kick made the half-time score 18-0.

Lennon added another penalty four minutes after the break but Widnes gave their small bunch of supporters something to cheer about on 57 minutes when Matty Smith offloaded to Jim Gannon who scored under the sticks. Ste Tyrer converted.

While the result was never in any doubt, Crusaders sealed the game on 64 minutes with a classic move. Damien Quinn made a strong run down the centre, laid off to Tony Duggan who made no mistake for his 14th try of the season. Lennon converted again.

And following a penalty, Neil Budworth, who was earlier denied a score after being held up over the line, used his strength to go over for try number five.

Lennon missed the kick but successfully converted a penalty minutes later to bring

the score onto 32-6,

He added another penalty on 76 minutes to bring the 100-point mark for Crusaders against Widnes this season, before a Ben Flower try with seconds remaining completed the rout.

John Dixon was a happy man.

“It wasn’t an easy day for playing but I thought our guys did a wonderful job,” he said. “Their respect for the ball and ability to play some percentages and still play some footy on top of that was a credit to them. For me, our defence was the outstanding part today while our ball control was terrific. Not only did we hold onto the ball in these conditions, but we were able to use it so it was a good all-round performance and I thought we did a wonderful job against a good footy team.

“Things are going pretty well for us. We’re right in the mix and that’s where we’ve hoped to be at the start of the year. We’ve proved that we can compete with the sides in this leagues and beat a few of them as well. We’ve put a very strong application in to join Super League and we hope that we continue to demonstrate that this would be a wonderful place to bring Super League because we can only get better and better from here.”

Widnes coach Steve McCormack refused to blame the weather conditions for his side’s poor display.

“The conditions were difficult for Crusaders as well and I’d like to congratulate John and his team. He’s coached them well as you can see from today, they were very clinical. From our point of view it’s disappointing – it’s the second time we’ve come down here in a few weeks with the same result. Last week we took the praise when we showed the desire, effort and quality to beat Salford, but this week we’ll take the flak. I expected us to put in a better performance tonight but it didn’t happen.

“I think the first half set the tone when we produced back to back errors and they capitalised on that. We feel we’ve let ourselves down with the performance tonight and we’ve got to work hard to get back into the top six for the end of the season.”

CELTIC CRUSADERS
1. Tony Duggan               
2. Paul Ballard
3. Aled James
4. Mark Dalle Cort                       
5. Anthony Blackwood   
6. Damien Quinn              
7. Mark Lennon               
8. Jordan James                
9. Ian Webster                  
10. Jamie I’Anson            
11. Chris Beasley             
12. Aaron Summers         
13. Luke Dyer                  
Subs:
14. Neil Budworth                       
15. Neale Wyatt               
16. Ben Flower
17. David Tangata-Toa

Tries: Blackwood (13), Dalle Cort (15), A.James (30), Duggan (64), Budworth (67), Flower (79)
Goals: Lennon 7/10

WIDNES VIKINGS
1. Ian Hardman
2. Dean Gaskell
3. Steven Tyrer
4. Chris Dean
5. Gavin Dodd
6. John Duffy
7. Matty Smith
8. Iain Morrison
9. Bob Beswick
10. Jim Gannon
11. Richard Fletcher
12. Paul Noone
13. Lee Paterson
Subs:
14. Steve Roper
15. Danny Hill
16. Jason Crookes
17. Ben Kavanagh

Tries: Gannon (57)
Goals: Tyrer 1/1

Referee: Thierry Alibert (France)
Attendance: 3,595
Men of the Match:
Crusaders – Mark Dalle Cort
Vikings – Ian Hardman
Penalties: 8-8
Scoring Sequence: 6-0, 10-0, 16-0, 18-0, 20-0, 20-6, 26-6, 30-6, 32-6, 34-6, 38-6
Half-time: 18-0
Gamestar: The Welsh speaking Aled James deserves a creditable mention for an excellent performance in his comeback game but Mark Dalle Cort was outstanding throughout creating a try, scoring another, running and kicking well and generally making a nuisance of himself.
Gamebreaker: The Crusaders stamped their authority on the game with an outstanding first half performance scoring 18 points without reply.
Weather: Torrential Rain
Match Rating: 3/5

article by Ian Golden
26 June 2008