Rylands 34

Bank Quay Bulls 26

RYLANDS went straight through to the Carlsberg Tetley Warrington Knockout Cup final after dramatically knocking Bank Quay Bulls out at the quarter-finals stage.

The Gorsey Lane boys were due to meet Culcheth in the semi-finals but the late withdrawal of Culcheth has taken some of the gloss off the competition with Rylands going straight through to meet Crosfields, who beat Latchford 23-16 on Tuesday night, in Wednesday's final at Wilderspool, kick-off 7.30pm.

North West Counties Division One side Rylands got the better of Division Two champions Bank Quay in extra time of a thrilling cup tie.

Rylands looked down and out as they trailed 21-12 in the second half of normal time but hit back with tries by Ian Ward and Andy Brown, the second of which was converted, to go into the dying moments with a one-point lead.

In the last minute Damien Fishwick landed a 35 metres drop goal to send the teams into extra time.

Bulls' Billy Rowan completed his hat-trick of tries in the first minute of extra time but from then on it was Rylands' night.

Andy Matthews crashed through the Bulls defence to level and Leonard tagged on the extras to give Rylands a 28-26 lead at the break.

In the final 10 minutes Bulls continued to test the Rylands defence but they held firm and in the drastically fading light Andy Brown shrugged off three would-be Bulls tacklers on a 40m burst out of his own 20m zone. He kept his nerve to draw full back Fishwick and give a perfectly timed pass to the supporting Phil Stevens who raced the final 40 metres to the line.

Two earlier Rylands tries were scored by Ian Ratcliffe while Neil Thomas had also bagged one for Bank Quay.

Rylands: Mark Robinson; John Walker, Paul Bagley, Ian Ratcliffe, Glyn Haddrell; Andy Brown, Peter Leonard; Andy Smith, Alan Brinksman, Andy Matthews, Nick Braide, Mike Lee, Tommy Brennan. Subs: Ian Ward, Andy Penny, Phil Stevens, Paul Clayton.

Bulls: Damien Fishwick; Dave Hughes, Lee Smith, Billy Rowan, Damien Shaw; Craig Fishwick, James Astbury; Alan Clare, Lee Westwood, Craig Millington, Dale Catterall, Stan Pazacklea, Paul Stringer. Subs: Gary Whaley, Neil Smith, Neil Thomas.