NORTHWICH celebrated the reopening of their refurbished clubhouse with a resounding home win against Penrith on Saturday.
Blacks led 31-0 by the break and went on to run out 69-19 victors against a side without a win yet this season in Regional 1 North West but have been running teams close.
The coaching team were delighted with the 11-try Northwich performance, and in particular man-of-the-match Tom Clark on his first league appearance of the season.
He was one of five players to cross for a brace of tries, the others being Rory Leijdekkers, Taylor Haugh, Eli Brizendine and Tom Husbands, who also converted seven shots at goal for a personal haul of 24 points.
Northwich can head to an in-form second-placed Macclesfield on Saturday with the confidence of a second win of the campaign under their belts.
Within two minutes Blacks picked up on a knock-on and were able to punish the visitors with a try by Patrick Douglas.
Northwich extended their lead in the 10th minute when, following a series of charges, they were awarded a penalty close to the Penrith try line and Leijdekkers was unstoppable from a quick tap.
Leijdekkers was over again four minutes later. Following a lineout, he rolled off the driving maul as the score moved on to 21-0.
Brizendine then made good ground out wide before chipping the ball forward to touch down a superb individual score.
A good handling move gave Haugh the opportunity to send a long pass for Brizendine to run in his second try shortly before the interval.
Penrith opened their account from a counter attack five minutes into the new half but Northwich responded with a fine try from Haugh, who, from a scrum, joined the line to find a gap and sprint 50 metres to the line.
Two minutes later Haugh’s long pass allowed Husbands to cross and again convert.
Penrith continued to ask questions of the Northwich defence and on the 60th minute were rewarded with an unconverted try.
From the restart Boitumelo Tsatsane collected a loose ball and delivered a superb offload to Clark for Blacks’ seventh try.
With 15 minutes remaining the visitors touched down after moving the ball wide from a lineout win.
However, this was Northwich’s day as they finished the game with a further three tries from Clark, Husbands and Haugh.
Northwich (15-9, 1-8): Taylor Haugh, Tom Husband, Boitumelo Tsatsane, Jack Owen, Eli Brizendine, Liam Batt, Austin Fernandez, Gabriel Sipapate, Eon Du Preez, Rory Leijdekkers, Patrick Douglas, Tom Clark, Aaron Collins, Sam Patterson, Richard Dale: Replacements: Anthony Keller, Callum Hulbert, Jack England.
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