Waterloo 13pts Sedgley Park 27

IT was bitingly cold at Blundellsands, and the game provided little entertainment for a small crowd.

Waterloo are bottom of the table and played accordingly. Sedgley will be upset that they were unable to turn scrummage superiority into points, but the home side did tackle well.

Sedgley began nervously, including a missed Colin Stephens penalty, but ten minutes into the game scored the first try. By packing the left of the field, Sedgley opened up the right and Rob Moon's kick was chased by Mike Wilcock and Kern Yates who, eventually, scored. The conversion hit a post, but Stephens was not to miss again.

Despite this early try and despite a huge advantage at the scrums, Sedgley still looked unsettled. The handling was well below par, so too the ball retention. Tony Handley kicked a penalty for Waterloo, immediately nullified by Stephens' first success, but the game refused to flow, marred by too much kicking and niggly play by the home side.

Waterloo's main threat came from full-back Rob Hitchmough, who was excellent, but a heavy tackle on him resulted in a couple of scuffles. From the first, Handley kicked a penalty, from the second Waterloo had a player sin-binned and, in his absence, Sedgley took two more scrums against the head to set up the position from which Tim Fourie scored; Stephens converted.

Waterloo should have scored a try following a great break by centre, Freeman Payne, but his pass was knocked on and Stephens kicked a 40-metre penalty to give Sedgley an 18-6 half-time lead.

The second half was bound to be better, we thought -- wrong! It was worse. It began with another scuffle, which was not to Sedgley's advantage. Park continued to try to play progressive rugby, but were unable to beat some excellent tackling. So, in the end, the points came from Stephens' reliable boot.

His first penalty stretched the lead to 21-6 before a powerful break by Richard Senior, supported by Leon Treco and Paul Arnold, briefly raised Sedgley's hopes.

Mike Wilcock then got clean away but was brought back for a pass which may have been forward. Stephens got a penalty instead.

A fine break by scrum-half, Dave McCormack, resulted in another penalty, but a real kick by home scrum-half, Craig Aikman, had Sedgley defending desperately.

Too desperately for the referee, who awarded Waterloo a penalty try which encouraged the Liverpudlians to play some good rugby from the re-start.

The final whistle came as a relief to the frozen spectators, who now have a long trip to Newbury to look forward to.

SEDGLEY PARK: Moon, (O'Hare), Wilcock, Hassan, Scales, Morris, Stephens, Smith, (McCormack), Alcock, (Latham), Treco, Thomas, Arnold, Rees, Senior, Yates, Fourie.