RUGBY: Big Ben strikes three times as Lions bounce back with a bang

Pete Kolakowski had a great game and scored a great try.

They were at Division Three basement boys Sutton Coldfield and roared to a 60-28 victory.

They crossed for a terrific 10 tries with prop Ben Howerd forcing his way over for three of them.

“It was a great way to come back after those three defeats. I know Sutton Coldfield are at the bottom of the table but to score 60 points at this level still takes some doing,” said Lions chairman Andy Moore.

Skipper Chris Humphrey attacks for the Lions at Sutton Coldfield. Picture: Mick Sutterby

“Our forwards, and in particular our four old-heads - Pete Kolakowski, Nico Steenkamp, Darren Fox and Chris Humphrey - were awesome. Sutton Coldfield had no answer to their power and their know-how.

“At one stage in the second half we were leading 53-7. It was only then that Sutton Coldfield realised that if they kept it away from our forwards they might do some damage and they scored three converted tries very late on through their backs, who to be fair were quite good.

“Mind you by then we had lost a few players through injury. Vernon Horne was a first-half casualty with a bad back and then in the second half Foxy came off and we lost Adam Barnard with concussion.

“And we were already a bit thin on the ground to start with. We had a lot of late drop-outs through injury today - Marius Andrijauskas and Conor Gracey were two of them. So we’re going to have quite a few problems with selection for next week’s game against Birmingham. It may well be a case of who’s left standing gets a game.

“So taking into account we fielded a bit of a patched-up side today with several players playing out of position, I was very pleased with the outcome.”

Howerd opened the scoring with his first try on four minutes and he added two more after half-time. Lions were 27-7 ahead at the interval.

The other touchdowns came from Tom Lewis, Kaz Henderson (2), Will Carrington, Kolakowski, George Offer and Humphrey.

Henderson had a fine game on the wing and looked very lively. He was the Lions’ best back and Carrington, normally the stand-off, did well at full-back.

Centre Offer, a recent recruit from Borough, scored his first try for the club on his full debut.

Carrington kicked five of the 10 conversions.