Caldy RUFC continued EDF Energy National Trophy adventure with victory over Broughton Park

Nov 26 2008 by Neil Macdonald, Birkenhead News

CALDY continued their EDF Energy National Trophy adventure with a hard-fought 32-0 victory over a fully-committed Broughton Park.

Although two divisions lower than the Wirral club, Park were a difficult team to subdue in breezy conditions.

Caldy made eight changes from the win at Halifax, but they were started on their way to victory by one of the men who retained his jersey, a Gavin Roberts penalty after 15 minutes making it 3-0.

Ten minutes later, Ben Wylie, playing at full back, collected a kick from Park’s stand off and ran it back from fully 50 metres out, outpacing the cover before passing to the supporting Matt Lamming for the try, Roberts converting the score.

Caldy’s class was now beginning to tell and it shone through again when, from a scrum, scrum half John Broxson broke through and ran in from 40 metres out to make it 15-0 at the break

Although he missed that conversion, Roberts made up for it with another wonderful individual score as he raced past his opposite number to score in the corner and make it 20-0 after 45 minutes.

Good forward pressure led to Andrew Soutar being the next to score, before Caldy took the chance to bring on a few substitutes and freshen up the team.

One of those replacements, captain Shaun Woof, set up the final score of the day with a lovely break on his own 10-metre line, supported by Wylie and Soutar, until Matt Pennington took the scoring pass.

Chris Buck’s conversion made it 32-0 for Caldy, with a place in the next round secure.

Director of rugby Tony Atherton said: “Park really put their all in to the game and I was delighted to record such a solid win.

“We had quite a few players out there who wanted to take their chance of first team rugby and give the selectors some problems, and they did that.

“After two away games in the Trophy, it would be nice to get a home draw for the next round, when National Division two teams come in.”

Before then, Caldy face a crunch National Division Three North match against their nearest challengers Harrogate on Saturday at Paton Field, kick off 2.15pm.