Sharks bow out of National Cup

Widnes St Maries 24

ALTHOUGH Shaw Cross Sharks suffered defeat in this National Cup contest, there were some positives to take from the team’s performance.

Widnes St Maries were top of National Conference League Division One until recently and were always going to prove a stern test for the young Sharks outfit.

St Maries started off with a blistering 20-minute spell, which saw them score three tries, while they also landed a penalty to take an 18-0 lead.

The Sharks hit back after 33 minutes when loose forward Nathan Hadfield linked well with Andrew Fawkes to go over. Diskin added the extras.

The Sharks were back in the contest and it remained 18-6 at half-time.

The second half started with a period of excellent play by Shaw Cross.

Matty Myers, who played a full 80 minutes in the second row, powered over in the corner and after 50 minutes, Danny Annakin again proved how useful a player he is, picking up a loose ball and showing elusive speed to score. Diskin added the two points to reduce the arrears to two points.

St Maries managed to score the final try to seal victory after collecting a high kick near the Sharks line.

The Sharks said goodbye to Chris Proctor, who is flying back to Australia this week, and the club would like to thank him for his efforts. Proctor had an outstanding last game to be awarded man-of-the-match.

Head Coach Brett Turner was in a buoyant mood despite the defeat and said: “If we perform like this in our league games we will be very difficult to beat.”