Rylands Sharks 16 Portico 44

THE Poets opened their season in fine style when running in seven tries against Warrington-based opponents Rylands.

Dale Croft opened Portico's account when Rylands tried to run the ball from the scrum, with Croft taking an interception and sprinting in from half way. Kevin Rooney converted.

Within moments the Poets went further ahead after Croft again went in dodging over from 10 yards out. Rooney converted.

Portico continued to dominate the game and emphasised that dominance when man-of-the-match Matty Devlin pushed over the whitewash to score his first Poets try. Rooney converted.

Dale Croft completed his hat-trick when he once again left the Rylands defence in tatters, going over from 20yds out.

From the kick off Portico looked as if they had switched off, allowing Rylands to recover the kick and eventually score between the sticks.

Sharks were looking to get back in the game at this stage, but after kicking the ball out on the full Croft pounced to score his fourth try of the afternoon.

Portico rounded the half off with their fifth try, Kevin Rooney scooting from acting half to score in the corner.

The poor weather conditions contributed to Rylands' next two tries, when they capitalised on Portico’s handling mistakes to score.

This had a distinct effect on Portico, who pushed to regain control of the game.

This eventually led to Devlin scoring his second, once again barging the Rylands defence out of his way. Rooney converted.

Mike Astbury rounded off the try scoring in the last play of the game and Rooney added a final conversion to complete a healthy victory for such an early stage of the season.