| Dings 48 - Barnes 0 |
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Dings Crusaders RFC
Dings Crusaders 48 By John White Dings stand-in skipper Dave Wheeler paid tribute to his troops after they handed out a 48-0 beating to league new boys Barnes in a one-sided contest at Lanseer Avenue. The hooker who was handed the captain’s armband due to the late withdrawal of club captain Stean Williams with a shoulder injury said, “Firstly I must say that it is a great honour to be given the captaincy of the side. The lads made my job easy today because every player did their job and played really well. We have been performing well of late and today we just seemed to click. We didn’t give away any silly penalties and we took our chances when they came along.“ he said
Barnes enjoyed plenty of possession but for all of their attacking intent, never looked like scoring against the home side. Dings produced a simple yet effective game plan with lock Rob Rees and prop Tim Brockett excelling in the Bristol side’s direct approach and open-side flanker Mitch Quoi at the heart of everything for Dings. Scrum half Steve Plummer kept his team going forward with his accurate box kicking and the backs ran hard and straight. Crusaders found themselves nine points up after 10-minutes with three penalties from fly-half Tom Lukjaniec who finished the afternoon with a 23-point haul. Plummer, who was making his home debut for the Lockleaze side, crossed for the opening try after he was put clear by Wheeler who drew the last man to give his half back an easy run in under the posts. Lukjaniec converted and also added the extras when Jack Tovey scored on 13 minutes. The wing gathered a delightful cross kick by the impressive Luckjanic to round his marker and race in behind the poles. Barnes pressed but the Dings defence was equal to the task with centres Sam Caven and Alex Dancer rock solid in mid field. Lukjaniec added another penalty on 33-minutes before further pressure from the Dings eight at the scrum resulted in No 8 Gavin Curry scoring a push-over try, which Lukjaniec converted to make it 33-0 at the interval. Crusaders second row Gareth Lloyd was next to score on 45 minutes after he was driven over from a lineout he had won. The big lock was clearly delighted after scoring his first senior try in a Dings shirt and, again Lukjaniec was on target with the conversion. Barnes improved defensively in the remainder of the second half and continued to play with tempo and width. Lukjaniec notched another penalty for Crusaders before full-back Orlando Stott rounded off a 70-metre move to score close to the uprights in injury time with Lukjaniec landing his ninth successful kick at goal to sealed the victory for Dings. |
