Ruskin Park 22 Liverpool St Helens 2nd 0

RUSKIN ran out worthy winners of this hard-fought local derby match at Ruskin Drive on Saturday.

The Moss Laners opened brightly, playing fast open rugby, only for the Ruskin side to pull out all the stops in a tremendous defensive stint.

Gradually, Ruskin gained the upper hand, and after 20 minutes took the lead from a penalty goal by Stu Fisher. Better was to come for Ruskin with a defensive mix-up by LSH on their own line enabling Ben Mousley to intercept and score near the posts. Fisher converted to give Ruskin a 10-0 half time lead.

In the second half Ruskin continued to dominate, with Dave Birch at stand-off varying play to great effect, and after concerted pressure by the Ruskin pack, it was Birch who scythed through the LSH defence for a superb try, again converted by Fisher.

Finally, a deft chip kick over a static defence by Birch allowed winger Greg Ashcroft to score an unconverted try in the corner.

This was a fine performance from the whole of the Ruskin team and continues the progress shown throughout the season. This will be needed in the coming weeks of league and cup games.