Swinton Lions 16 - Hunslet Hawks 27

SWINTON got it right for 20 minutes on Sunday but unfortunately got it badly wrong for the rest of the game.

They started and ended with a flourish but in between was a catalogue of errors that resulted in an embarrassing defeat to one of their top five rivals.

Victory would have given the Lions a healthy three points cushion with a game in hand over the Hawks but instead they dropped down a place to fifth.

Coach Les Holliday was fuming after the game and locked the players in the dressing room for an inquest.

Influential scrum-half Ian Watson admitted the coach had laid down the law.

"We were all very disappointed with the performance and the coach asked everyone to have their say about what went wrong. Everyone came to the conclusion that on the day we weren't good enough. We made too many mistakes and will have to get it right in our next game against Keighley.

"We lost direction. We played for 10 minutes, went in front and eased off a little allowing them to come back. We should be looking to kill teams off once we go ahead. You can't afford to make that many mistakes."

It had all started so brightly with Swinton dominating the early exchanges and the visitors had to reorganise after player-coach David Plange lasted only three minutes before being helped off with concussion.

Prop Ian Blease burst through a gap before slipping the ball to Steve Gartland who twisted his way over and landed the goal.

It appeared plain sailing for Swinton but against the run of play the Hawks hit back four minutes later when Jonah Windley's up and under was taken by Paul Mannson and he slipped the ball to substitute Aaron Campbell who dived over in the corner. Ross missed the goal. From that point the game swung dramatically Hunslet's way with stand-off Richard Goddard, the former Castleford star, showing the first of a series of class touches in the 25th minute when he found the gap to send Richard Baker scorching over. Ross was wide again but landed a 35 yards penalty seven minutes before the break to give Hunslet a 10-6 half-time lead.

Any hopes of an improvement after the half-time team talk were quickly dispelled as the visitors scooted in for three more tries in 20 minutes. Weak tackling and a succession of dropped balls put Swinton under pressure and the Hawks took full advantage.

Prop Lafaete Filipo crashed over from the play-the ball before a brilliant sweeping move ended with Baker cutting inside to grab his second try. Goddard was the try provider again when he broke clear before sending Mick Coyle racing over. Ross added two conversions.

The Lions came back with two tries in as many minutes but by then it was too little too late. Simon Ashcroft accelerated through a gap for a touchdown before man-of-the-match George Mann was rewarded for his strong running when he handed off two defenders to score. Sean Casey added the goal.

Goddard popped over a drop-goal to keep the Lions at arms length.

SWINTON: Ashcroft, Evans, Barrow, Craig, Price-Jones, Gartland, Watson, Blease, Cannon, Mann, Coley, Adams, Casey. Subs: Clearey (for Gartland 58), McComas (for Craig 60), Rogers (for Adams 66), Barrow T (for Blease 32), Blease (for Coley 60). Att: 1,063.

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