Crewe & Nantwich moved up to second in the league following a stunning away win at Leek by forty five points to nil. The demolition of their hosts on a wet and windy afternoon was their fourth win in five games in the league and by far their best performance of the season so far.

Both teams took to the pitch in pouring rain and a howling wind. Despite this Crewe captain, Eli Woodward won the toss and opted to play into the wind for the first half. Leek kicked off and immediately Crewe stamped their authority on the game and played smart rugby, keeping the ball in hand with the forwards, rucking and mauling effectively allowing the backs to play some lovely passing rugby.

Leek couldn’t cope with the swift and bold running of Crewe centre pairing of Zwijnen and Russell-Vick and it was they who broke the home defence first and joined by McShane who had come of his wing to carry the ball into the opposition 22 metre line to pass to the right winger, Elliott Meredith to score Crewe’s opening try in the corner. Creighton missed the difficult conversion.

Leek restarted the game and for a brief period they looked like they were going to make a match of it, but sterling defence by the Crewe forwards, in particular the back row trio of Alston, Lang and Standley.

The home team ran out of ideas and they were duly punished for it as Crewe counter attacked with both forwards and backs attacking in unison for second row, Joe Telfer to cross over for the visitors second try of the game which was converted by Crewe no.10 Jim Creighton to make it Leek 0 -12 Crewe & Nantwich.

Crewe retained the ball well and frustrated their hosts by winning scrums against the head, disturbing the home team’s lineout and stopping their rolling mauls. Hard running by Crewe skipper Woodward into the Leek half, sometimes needing 3 or 4 men to stop him, took away any advantage that the wind may have given Leek in the first half and when the half time whistle blew, they knew that without putting a single point on the board with that advantage, they were in for a tough 40 minutes in the second half.

Crewe restarted the second half with the wind behind their backs and the kick off went deep into their opponents 22 meter area and following a five minute period of sustained pressure, a clever kick by Creighton over the Leek defence bounced kindly for Russell-Vick to pounce on and score Crewe’s third try of the afternoon, which was then converted by Creighton to extend Crewe’s lead to 19-0.

Leek looked beaten and from their restart, Creighton took advantage of the wind and kicked the ball into touch deep into the Leek half. From the ensuing line out, Crewe pressure managed to turn over the ball and from the ensuing attack, Crewe scrum-half, Alex Caldwell darted between two tacklers to cross the try line to score Crewe’s fourth try of the afternoon which Creighton easily converted to extend the lead to 26-0.

Crewe were now playing their best rugby of the season so far and looked fully in control of the game as their opponents looked stunned by the onslaught of precision kicks, passes and attacks that were being put together confidently and effectively as they looked to put even more points on the board.

They didn’t have to wait long as Crewe’s industrious no.6 Matt Standley crossed over the line to score Crewe’s 5th try of the afternoon, which was converted by Creighton who was having a good afternoon with his boot despite the wind and rain, 33-0 to Crewe.

The home crowd were stunned and quiet by what they were seeing. Leek traditionally has not been a happy hunting ground for Crewe & Nantwich, until this game that is. Their disbelief was deepened further with ten minutes to go when, Crewe full back, George Colebourne crowned a solid personal performance by scoring Crewe’s 6th try which wasn’t converted to extend Crewe’s lead to 38-0.

With minutes to go and being at the end of a humiliating defeat, one or two Leek players adopted some very questionable tactics by throwing a few sly punches at Crewe players, who did well not to react by staying disciplined and focused on the rugby.

And it was an excellent display of rugby that shone through the murky conditions as Crewe ran in their 7th and final try of the afternoon when wing, Elliott Meredith crossed over for his second try of the game when he scored underneath the posts giving Creighton an easy kick to convert and make it a final score of Leek RUFC 0 – 45 Crewe & Nantwich RUFC.

A delighted Crewe & Nantwich, Head Coach, Peter Allen said “I’m proud of the lads and how they performed today. Despite winning last week I was far from happy with the standard of our performance. But in fairness to them, the lads took what I and the coaching team told them on board and they trained well during the week and this was the result of all of that. This is the minimum standard I expect from this team and it’s heartening after 4 wins out of 5 to see the lads finally showing their true potential”.

Man of the Match was Crewe no.12 Andre Zwijnen.

Crewe & Nantwich have a break from league action this Saturday as they face Nottinghamshire side West Bridgford at home at the Vagrants in the 3rd Round of the RFU Intermediate Cup, kick off 2:15PM.