Royal Mail 14 Rainford Rhinos 16 RHINOS showed great discipline to take the spoils in a bruising encounter.

Sixteen penalties awarded against Royal Mail in the first 10 minutes set the mode and Scott Pickavance took full advantage by kicking two goals to give the Rhinos a 4-0 lead.

The referee finally lost patience and sin-binned the Royal Mail scrum-half for use of the elbow and Rainford were rewarded for their discipline with a fine try by Martin Banks after the ball had gone through six pairs of hands.

Royal Mail opened their account with an unconverted try after a mistake by the Rhinos at a scrum, but the Rainford lads hit back again with a try from hooker Paul O'Brien.

Just before half-time Royal Mail narrowed the deficit with a converted try from close range.

The Rhinos' patience finally snapped within a few minutes of the re-start when Paul O'Brien was hit off the ball and was sin-binned for retaliating.

The reaction from the Rhinos pack was to step up a gear and Karl Allender forced his way through and found support from Chris Thair who raced in for what proved to be the match-winning try.

Although Royal Mail replied with another try three minutes from time, the Rhinos held out for a well-deserved win.

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