North Wales Crusaders U13s put in another impressive performance last weekend as they beat Haydock Warriors 54-10 in the Division Four Cup.
It was a comprehensive and thoroughly-deserved victory against a Warriors side who battled hard to the very end of the cup tie.
In a scrappy first-half, Crusaders were in control of the game for large spells, but a couple of very uncharacteristic lapses in their normally rock-solid defence allowed the home team to cross for two tries.
North Wales held a solid 20-10 lead at half-time.
The Crusaders youngsters looked like their old selves again in the second-half, tackling hard and being ruthless in attack as they took total control of the game.
Haydock found it very hard to make any impression on Crusaders’ defensive line and found it harder still to hold the visitors’ hard-running and speedy backline.
George Hinchcliffe, who scored a peach of a try on his first outing, was followed over the tryline by fullback Iwan Hughes (three), captain Joe Jones (two), loose forward Charlie Jones (two) and dummy half Will Buttress (two). Hughes kick seven of out ten conversions.
This victory keeps Crusaders unbeaten on the pitch, scoring tries for fun and conceding only ten points in their three games, in what has been a fantastic start to a season at any level.
Head coach Allen Jones said: “The boys are playing really well, but there is still a huge amount for them to learn.
“They are learning quickly, are a competitive bunch and a real joy to coach.
“There is so much more to come from them and myself and assistant coach Rikki Davies are well aware of our good fortune in having such a talented group who possess real potential to develop and progress into something quite special.”
Next up for Crusaders’ potential stars of the future is a return trip to Haydock in two weeks’ time for a League Four fixture and possibly a valuable two league points.
