FOR THE second year in successon, Altrincham Kersal Colts won the Cheshire County RFU Colts Cup, outscoring Northwich by five tries to one in the process.

The victory was not as easy as the scoreline would suggest.

The bigger, heavier Northwich forwards dominated the set scrums and used their weight advantage to great effect, taking the play downfield with powerful forward drives, forcing the Kersal defence into errors.

The first of these came very early in the game when Altrincham Kersal were penalised and the Northwich No.10 kicked a penalty from a long way out.

The Kersal forwards stuck to their task and provided sufficient possession to allow their speedy back formation to cause problems.

So much so that after 25 minutes, the score was 0-3 to Kersal.

Tries were scored by Neil Bright, following up a well judged kick ahead by Phil Murphy and touching down in the corner and Craig Walsh after a break down midfield and a passing movement to the wing.

Another powerful penalty kick by the Northwich fly half taken from the half way line brought the score to 10-6 at the break, bringing Northwich within striking distance of the Kersal score.

The second half began as did the first, with the Northwich No. 10 showing his ability by kicking another devasting penalty - only one point separating the teams.

He then had a chance to put his team ahead with the easiest kick of the game.

To the relief of the Kersal supporters it just shaved the wrong side of the post.

Then Altrincham Kersal got into their stride.

When Mike Burgess was obstructed after a kick ahead, they took a tap penalty and opened up a gap for Darren Moroney to race through and touch down under the post Pete Allen converted.

Then came the best movement of the game.

From the restart after gathering the ball deep in their own half, the Kersal backs with wonderful support and crisp passing gave the final pass to Matt Coleman to score.

Pete Allen converted again but Northwich did not give up.

A sustained forward movement brought them reward in the form of a five metre scrum from which they scored in the corner.

An excellent forward try, duly converted by their No.10.

The final score of the game came when Phil Murphy Kersal's No.10, ever sharp and with quick hands made a superb interception to break up a Northwich attack and race through the midfield and give the scoring pass to Jonny Shaw and leave the final score at 29-16.

The club now is looking forward to next season, not only to win the cup again and make it their own, but also to bring some of this wonderful talent through to the senior sides.