Nine-try feast is easy romp

Feb 18 2002 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

By that stage the visitors were already 36-0 ahead, and coach Tony Smith felt his midfield maestro had deserved a breather.

And what a relief that must have been to Swinton!

For the 50 minutes Thorman was on the field, they hardly got close to him, with the scrum half playing a key role on every try.

Although a superb break from deep by Paul Reilly created the initial opening for try No1, it was Thorman who prised open the Lions defence, albeit somewhat fortuitously.

After a defence-splitting run to the line, his attempted tryscoring pass was knocked down by a Swinton player and fell kindly to Hayes who raced in at the corner for the opener.

That brought howls of protest from the small home support - they were out-numbered at least three to one by Huddersfield fans - who believed Thorman had knocked-on.

But they were unable to blame the match officials for Thorman's magical solo try that followed six minutes later, although they may have had a case for the next try.

A lightning Thorman break down the right was halted five yards short of the Lions line.

With the cover forcing the half-back into touch, he released the ball which appeared to go forward.

Hefin O'Hare seemed to come from an offside position to pick up the ball and promptly crashed over.