Rylands Sharks 56 Dewsbury Moor Maroons 6

RYLANDS Sharks made a stunning start to life in the National Conference League at the weekend.

After overhauling Dewsbury Moor, they are now preparing to host ‘derby’ rivals Crosfields at Gorsey Lane on Saturday, kick off 2.30pm.

The power and pace of the new-look Sharks proved too much to handle for the Yorkshire outfit at Gorsey Lane.

Head of coaching Matt Wilson was delighted with the his men’s opening contribution to life in the competition’s Division Three after stepping up from the North West Men’s League.

He said: “A lot of people have worked really hard for two years for a day like this.

“The boys, 1 to 17, were outstanding; Dewsbury just struggled to live with our power and pace from minute one.

“My middle men were outstanding and they really set the platform for some of the great stuff we did in attack and defence; the boys are filthy with themselves for conceding a try.

“It’s a fantastic platform to build on, but we’re far from the finished article yet and the boys are buying into that.

“We will stay grounded and we have another massive test this week against Crosfields but we will enjoy Saturday for what it was – and that was a really big effort.”

Best performers for Rylands were man-of-the-match Nick Braide, Jay Clarke, Gavin Conroy, Chris Dean and Luke Walker.

Rylands dominated the first half, posting two early tries from one of their new recruits Conroy, playing at left centre.

Further tries were added by Clarke, Braide, Walker and Luke Gillooley, with Jack Lewis adding three conversions to give the hosts a 30-0 advantage at the turnaround.

Rylands added to their tally with additional tries from Walker and Conroy, completing hat-tricks for each of them, Braide and Lewis, who landed another three goals.

The one-way traffic was halted for a brief spell with a converted try from the visitors’ substitute Alex Jeffs, but the away side were rarely allowed to threaten throughout.

Rylands: Jack Lewis; Luke Gillooley, Luke Walker, Gavin Conroy, Mike Harrison; Craig Harris, Tyler Whittaker; Matt Taylor, Tony Doyle, Danny Yates, Jamie Clarke, Nick Braide, Chris Dean. Subs: Sean Boyle, Stuart Shaw, Anthony Rourke, Robert Campbell.