Old Grovians 90, Burley 5

FIVE weeks after Dan Scarbrough renewed his playing connection with Bradford Salem, another former England winger has done the same with his club.

Paul Sampson came off the bench to play about half of Old Grovians' record league victory in what was a tougher match than the 14-try romp suggests.

And while there is more of a sense of permanence about 37-year-old Scarbrough's availability to help SSE Yorkshire Division Two leaders Bradford Salem's bid for the title, it is very much up in the air as to when 37-year-old Sampson, who was capped three times by his country between 1998 and 2001, will be available again for runaway Yorkshire Division Three leaders Old Grovians.

"I have been keeping an eye on how they have been doing," said former Woodhouse Grove pupil Sampson of his old boys' club, "and I got the call on Thursday to help them out, which I was glad to do, but nothing has been decided about my future with them.

"If it had been a top-of-the-table clash, I would not have expected to play. It was quite a physical match and once we leaked a try we got into it again."

On an afternoon when the weather was better than expected at Elm Tree Farm, next-to-bottom Burley had three periods of dominance.

They began the match well but their first misplaced pass after five minutes was hacked on by home fly half Adam Weaving, who caught the bouncing ball 40 metres out and went over for their opening try.

A more severe spell of Burley pressure came immediately before half-time, and it needed stern defence to keep them out.

Trailing 52-0 at half-time, the Leeds club, who lost lock Richard Cuthbert to a knee injury after they had conceded their second try and later lost prop Simon Pantelli to a head injury, had a decent opening 20 minutes to the second half.

Eventually flanker Steve Cuthbert forced his way over after 58 minutes but Old Grovians held sway for the final 20 minutes, running in six tries to add to the eight that they scored in half an hour in the first half.

Old Grovians, who had 39-year-old John Hinchliffe at scrum half for the entire contest and 49-year-old Mark Heap as a forward replacement, generally had too much firepower for the plucky visitors.

Hinchliffe's tap and go after 11 minutes paved the way for centre Anthony Griffin to put in left winger Aaron Magee, and Hinchliffe scored himself five minutes later, despite Burley winning a scrum near their line.

Nice hands then put Magee over again for the bonus-point try, Weaving ran a good line for their fifth, and the rampaging Chris Baines and the elusive and skilful Griffin put pacy winger Dion Hendricks in for try number six.

A cross-kick by the equally pacy Magee put Hendricks up against a prop, which proved no contest, and Sampson finished off the eighth try in the 35th minute, Weaving adding his sixth conversion.

Woken up by Burley's sole try, the leaders found their scoring touch again, with Magee completing his hat-trick, replacement Joe Sowden going over on the right wing and Hendricks bagging his third with a mixture of balance and pace which left several Burley defenders clutching at thin air.

A penalty try, Magee's fourth and full back Ben Brown completed the rout, with the latter adding four conversions after Weaving went off with a thigh injury.

Old Grovians are 11 points ahead of second-placed Castleford and 16 in front of Old Modernians, who Grovians visit on Saturday. No wonder their director of rugby Martin Whitcombe said: "I wonder how far this rugby club can go?"