Walsall 48 LSH 15

LSH were brought down to earth with a bump by bottom-of-the-table Walsall.

Nicknamed the Bears, Walsall belied their position with a display, which gently hugged the visitors in the first half and then squeezed the life out of them in the second.

Quite simply, LSH never competed. Walsall benefited from some generous decisions in the first 20 minutes, with Mike Crisp converting three penalties to take a 9-0 lead. And just before half-time they were awarded a penalty try following the collapse of a scrum.

Although Simon Worsley converted a late penalty, half-time arrived with Walsall well in command at 16-3. Their game plan to dominate the forwards had not allowed LSH any possession and former LSH prop David Waite and flanker Richard Lee made sure that there was no let-up in the second half.

From the re-start things went from bad to worse as Walsall took a 31-3 lead within 15 minutes following two tries and a drop goal. Sin-bin offences from Botha and Casey did not help the visitors' cause.

The LSH scores came from a typical piece of opportunism from Steve Cook and from full-back Mike Jones powerfully finishing off the only penetrative move of the afternoon from the Merseysiders. Flanker Darren Crilly grabbed the ball to drop-kick the conversion, unwittingly denying Simon Worsley 200 points for the season.

But the game was fittingly ended with the Bears' sixth try of the afternoon scored by centre Barney Eastwood to give a 48-15 score-line rapturously applauded by the win-starved Midlands crowd.