A 'Russian' a push and Victory is Ours

Hornets 'hammer' Moscow. Russians 'sickle' as a parrot

It was the confidence booster we all needed.

Bobby Goulding's 'New Hornets' dispatched Dynamo Moscow whence they came with a lesson in pace and power.

Whilst, admittedly, the Russians struggled for long periods to handle the raw grunt of the Hornets pack and the nifty handiwork of the '3 B's' Braddish, Birdseye and Butterworth, you can only play the opposition in front of you. And, but for some peculiar refereeing decisions from the perennially awful Ronnie Laughton, the winning margin could have been greater.

Hornets were underway whilst Dinamno were still sorting themselves out - Janan Billings sneaking under the wire from five metres after just five minutes.

Three minutes later we saw the first performanceof a move that would prove very fruitful during the afternoon - Daren Shaw's short outside ball to a rampaging Andy Gorski who shruged off tacklers to score.

On quarter of an hour a delicate Braddish chip caught the Moscow defence flat and floundering - Anderson capitalised and collected to score. 17 minutes, it was Billings' turn to play provider for Gorski who ran at the same spot as last time - and got exactly the same result. With Lee Birdseye's conversions, Dinamo found themselves 28-nil down and unable to stem the tide.

On their first foray into Hornets' ten metre zone on half an hour, Mr Laughton played his 'don't let 'em get nilled' card and gave a quite bizarre penalty try after... well... we don't know what it was after, but he signalled 'holding back' and gave it anyway. Uproar in the stand and the Russians on the scoreboard.

Half time: 28-6.

The Russians started the second half like a yurt on fire. Vinogradov took advantage of some napping defence on 46 minutes; Tufeao piling in from short range on 51 minutes. Both converted - Hornets' lead down to 10 points and a bit of uneasy shuffling amongst the ranks.

But once Hornets had prised possession from the Russians (gifted via a string of surreal penalties) normal service was resumed.

Wing Chris Campbell helped himself to a carbon copy hat-trick out wide on the left (Anderson and Braddish sharing the supply role); a Braddish kick through fell kindly for Birdseye who scored; Birdseye turned provider in similar fashion for Anderson and 'Slippery' Sam Butterworth brought the main stand to its feet with a weaving, stepping 80 metre sprint through a flapping Moscow team. Birdseye banged over goal number 8.

Right on the hooter, Moscow grabbed their consolation effort - Vinogradov slumping in from half a yard for his second. Gritty - but not pretty.

Final score: 60-24; Hornets ramming home 11 tries.

As Hornets supporters exhaled in relief at Hornets first win under Goulding, the Bobster himself was critical of his side's faults: "I wasn't happy with our defence at all and it's an area we have to do a lot of work on. On defence we were very patchy. We need to move up more quickly, so the bags will be out this week and we will be working a lot more on defence."

"I thought we were quite good on attack although we have to be a bit more selective", he went on. "We thought we were the Harlem globetrotters in our own 22 and we'll have to knock that on the head."

"But our attack worked well and I'm particularly pleased for Andy Gorski. he had lousy luck last season, but has been our top trainer and all his hard work has paid off."

So, the Russians get another lesson on their steep learning curve - a lesson that will hopefully fuel the development on Rugby League in a country that has clearly taken the superior handling game to its hearts.

The downside for them could be that yesterday's performance could cost them one of their key players.

Bobbie Goulding was so impressed with by Dinamo's Cook Islands stand-off Henry Turua that he's offered him an opportunity to come and try his luck with Hornets. "I thought he had a cracking game - I think he could do well for us," said Goulding.

Never a dull moment with Bobbie. And that's for sure.