Lancashire 46-12 Warwickshire

Lancashire began their defence of the Bill Beaumont Cup with a 46-12 victory against Warwickshire at Sedgley Park.

Although a 34 point winning margin might suggest a comfortable win for the defending champions this was not the case.

With a large National League Two North winning contingent the home side went into the contest high in confidence.

It was Oliver Brennand, one of nine men from the championship winning Fylde outfit, who opened the scoring within a minute.

Head Coach Mark Nelson handed eight new caps for this the opening game of the 2011 campaign.

It was newly capped Tom Hughes who doubled the hosts tally within five minutes; this prompted many to believe that the contest would soon become a rout.

This was not the case as the Red roses were made to work hard throughout by a stubborn Warwickshire defence.

After weathering an early storm the visitors missed the opportunity to open their scoring account, Lee Audis’ penalty kick hitting the post.

This however did not deter the Warwickshire outfit, soon gaining a foot hold in the game via a Matt Goode try as he snuck in the corner.

Had it not been for the inaccuracy of Audis’ boot the men from down the M6 could have found themselves in front as he pushed another penalty wide.

This profligacy in front of the posts was soon confounded as Gareth Rawling had the easiest of tasks to touch down at the back of a strong Lancashire scrum.

Another Brennand try was added on the half hour mark. A huge Peter Aitham dummy enough to breach the defence, Brennand left with the easiest of finishes.

Warwickshire responded once more with a second try two minutes from the interval, Heath Stevens latching onto a Mike Walls grubber kick.

A penalty on the stroke of half time from Alex Davies took the sides in at half time with the score 27-12.

Lancashire came out after the interval lacking a certain amount of precision.

This however was soon found by full-back Chris Briers his supporting run carving a whole in the defence as he stretched well to finish.

Briers was again at the heart of another Lancashire attack as Brennand’s solo effort saw him complete a hat-trick of tries.

After the roses sixth try it wasn’t for another 24 minutes until the scoreboard ticked over once more, this a representation of the hard-fought nature of the contest.

An exclamation point was added two minutes from time to what can be described as an efficient Lancashire performance, referee Andrew Jackson awarding a penalty try.