Sunday's Coming: Swinton Lions

In the week where the son of Swinton legend Danny Wilson stepped into quite possibly the highest profile sporting job in the world, it was apt to consider the long, dark uncertain winter of the soul suffered by the loyal supporters of one of Rugby League's most venerable clubs.

A Sporting Legend -
 and Ryan Giggs.

Swinton's pre-season near-implosion left player-coach Ian Watson late to the championship party, hurriedly assembling a squad and compelled to continue to lean heavily on the Lions'  Dual registration relationship with Warrington that has seen a parade of senior Super League names don the blue and white jersey. To some, this seemingly over-symbiotic relatiotionship exemplified all that's wrong about Dual Reg. Indeed, without coming over all Clive Griffiths, last year's 'cameos' by Adrian Morley, Lee Briers and Paul Wood left even us at TLCRF80mins reconsidering our view.

This season - with Dr Marwan Kash-Cow hovering in the background promising a new ground in Swinton in return for the club's very soul -  the relationship seems more balanced, with Kevin Penny probably the highest profile Dual Reg. name. He was recalled to his parent club last week, scoring a hat-trick in Wire's thrashing of Doncaster - but is in line for a return on Sunday.

Swinton similarly exited the Challenge Cup last week at the hands of a fairly rudimentary Keighley Cougars - and it afforded us the opportunity to take a first-hand look at this week's opponents.

What we saw was, fundamentally, the Ian Watson show. Complete with his trademark skippety-hoppety running style, his single-handed steering of the Swinton ship is the bedrock of their game-plan. 

We didn't see a great deal of structure: most plays appeared to be ad-hoc - called play-by-play by Watson - so when he wasn't involved, there wasn't a great deal of threat. His injected himself into play mid-way through most sets to effect either a short drop-off pass or a wide cut-out pass. But as Swinton began to chase the game Watson got increasingly sucked in at acting half as their only real channel of distribution.

If the ball didn't get to Watson on the last tackle, Swinton looked short on ideas - twice caught in last tackle possession, and alternative kickers finding neither space nor a corner. And with no real second-phase ball to speak of, Keighley were rarely stretched.

But Watson's importance to the Swinton effort was underlined by two vintage moments mid-way through the second half that hauled the Lions to within one score of the Cougars. A beautifully timed pass and an inch-perfect kick peeled the visiting defence wide open for two well taken tries - fair warning that, if you give him enough time and space, he can still create good opportunities.

Without the ball, Swinton's defence looked fragile under kicks.  They didn't successfully defend a kick of any kind until the 70th minute, when wing-man Worthington shipped a grubber dead. Until then they'd reeled under a series of bombs to the corners and generally flapped at anything bouncing into the in-goal.

Locked in a centre-field arm-wrestle, Swinton looked more than capable of nullifying Keighley's blunt-instrument approach (five drives by a big lad, followed by a sixth drive from a big lad) - but as soon as Keighley opened up their game, the Lions looked in all sorts of trouble. Indeed, Swinton struggled with sudden spikes of high-tempo, expansive football.

Three times (the first after just two minutes) Keighley moved the ball swiftly - doubling-up centres, with the full-back looping outside to create the extra man - and the Lions had no real answer.

The final score of 20-33 short-changed Keighley's dominance a little. While Swinton worked hard, scrambled well and gave it a good go, Keighley did pretty much everything better on the day and deserved their 'reward' - a trip to Widnes (now, that does feel like fourth prize in the raffle).

Ultimately, our observation is elementary: stop Ian Watson and the rest will follow.

UPDATE:


Ton-up for Wayne
Hornets club captain Wayne English is set to make his 100th appearance for the Hornets against his old club Swinton Lions on Sunday.  Having had a 10 year career at Swinton, 'The Bolt from Kirkholt' came 'home' to Hornets in 2010 and has established himself as a club legend.


TLCRF80mins sends its heartiest congratulations to the best full-back never to have played Super League - and better than many who have.


RFL Preview
In-form Rochdale Hornets prepare for Sunday’s Kingstone Press Championship clash with Swinton Lions buoyed by winning three of their last four league fixtures. Ian Talbot’s side has beaten Batley Bulldogs, Whitehaven and North Wales Crusaders in that period.

Talbot said: "We’ve a few results that have turned heads. The last game against North Wales was very satisfying for us given the rivalry that’s built up."

“We are finding our feet at this level, but it’s going to get tougher from here. Maybe a few teams have underestimated us up to now, but I can’t see that happening now."

He added: “Swinton will be looking at this as a must-win game. If we get the win it puts us four points above them, so it’s a big game for both teams.”

Gareth Langley will be assessed before Sunday’s match after what was initially thought to be a rib injury was discovered to be a bruised lung. Alex Trumper (knee) and Dave Llewellyn (ankle) will not be ready for Sunday, but John Cookson could feature.

Swinton coach Ian Watson looks set to be boosted by the return of Josh Barlow, but Mick Nanyn and Danny Halliwell are both ruled out.

The Lions are also without Zach Johsnon, who was given a one-match suspension by the RFL’s disciplinary panel after being found guilty of punching in the Lions’ recent match against Leigh Centurions, but former Hunslet centre Steve Lewis could come into contention.

Hornets Power Wrecks 'em

Crusaders 16 - Hornets 42

Hubris is the stock in trade at the Unvrsty f n Vwls Racecourse Stadium. 'We Fear Nothing" is their motto - but there will be plenty of people in Wrexham waking up sweating at the torment meted out by Hornets in this outstanding win.

Outmuscled by a superior pack, out-thought by a smarter half-back pairing, out-played by a fitter looking side and out-enthused 1-to-17, Crusaders were a distant second to a ruthless Hornets in full flow.

All the early pressure came from from Hornets, with Ryan Millard spraying the ball wide, with debutant Shaun Robinson hustled into touch twice in the opening minutes. After 10 minutes the concerted pressure finally told,  Paul Crook ghosting over from acting half, then converting his own try to give Hornets a nil-6 lead.

Crusaders tried desperately to get themselves into the game. But poor discipline and a pack looking increasingly second best as the game progressed ensured that the momentum stayed with Hornets. Ironic then that it was a Hornets transgression that piggy-backed the homeside downfield where Johnson found space to score after 15 minutes. He slapped his conversion attempt wide of the mark. 
4-6.

Crusaders continued to spoil and scrap and when they coughed up a penalty for holding down after 25 minutes, Crooky coolly took the two to stretch Hornets' lead to 4-8.

With the home side's persisting in attempting to stymie every ruck, referee Cobb's patience finally snapped, and when Crusaders' Walker challenged his point of view he was dispatched to consider his role in matters for 10 minutes. Hornets' response was immediate.

With Walker still… er… walking to the bench, Sean Casey picked a peach of a pass for Chris Baines to hit at pace and score. Crooky with the extras, 4-14.

Now with the momentum, Hornets continued to press and with the half hour on the clock, Mike Ratu wrestled his arms clear of surrounding defenders to touch down. Crooky with the two; Hornets looking comfortable at 4-20.

With half-time approaching, Crusaders launched a late attack. Playing some rare football, Ashall conjured up a short ball for Offerdahl to score on the hooter. Johnson adding the two: half time, Crusaders flattered at 10-20.

The second half began with the home side clearly having ratcheted up the niggling, but Hornets began with serious intent. An early penalty gave Hornets good field position, where Paul Crook sent Adam Bowman powering under the black dot.  The two a formality: 10-26

Tempers finally frayed after 50 minutes when roly-poly Jono Smith goaded a reaction out of Adam Bowman. Both players sin-binned; Crusaders first to compose themselves, Ashall scoring of the next set. Johnson with the extras 16-26. 

Hornets had clearly had enough of the home side's pissing around and stepped up a gear to take the game out of Crusaders' reach.

On 58 minutes good hands fashioned a great break for Mike Ratu out wide. Ratu backed himself against  ex-Super League threequarter Wilde and left him for dead. With support on his right and defenders gathering, Ratu produced an outrageous dummy that left him with a clear run to score the try of the day. Crooky banged the two over from the touchline and Crusaders were blowing hard at 16-32.

Further Welsh niggling on the hour gifted Paul Crook two more from a penalty -and it was Crooky again tormenting the home defence four minutes later when he drew two defenders and slipped a gem of an inside ball to Gaz Langley who skated through to score. Crooky with the two: 16-40 and the home side a busted flush.

On the next foray into Welsh territory a good kick and chase forced a repeat set - but Crusaders fluffed the drop-out, failing to go 10 metres. Crooky said "ta" and whacked home the two: 16-42.

The home side repeated the feat from the kick-off, Jono Smith's effort failing to go the ten; Hornets straight back up field to turn the screw some more, but - now unable to summon the wherewithal to niggle - the home defence held-out.

Final score 16-42.

Make no mistake about it, this was about as one-sided a flogging as it's possible to see. There's no doubt that Crusaders have capable players in their line-up, but their desire to spoil was their downfall here - and Hornets were happy to play expansive, high-tempo football around the Welsh side's lame antics.

Certainly, there are questions to be asked about the desire in the Crusaders camp. Where Ian Talbot has galvanised his team into a tight, united, spirited unit, as soon as the game began to slip away from the home side, they sought to disrupt - and when that failed, they basically folded. The vociferous home fans didn't like it much - but the noisy, elated Hornets contingent in the 835 crowd didn't really care.

And with Hornets hoisted up the table, this was a great afternoon's work by everyone involved.