North Wales Crusaders opened their competitive account for the 2025 season with a rousing victory in difficult conditions on the south coast as they saw off Cornwall 52-0 to book their place in the third round of the Betfred Challenge Cup.
Carl Forster’s side entered the game on the back of a pre-season campaign which had seen planned friendlies against Widnes (frozen pitch) and London (local water outage) called off, meaning Sunday was the first chance for the new-look-squad to take to the field in 2025.
Difficult conditions welcomed Crusaders as driving rain and hail lead to a heavy pitch at the Memorial Ground where early exchanges proved difficult on the muddy surface.
Having opened their account in the ninth minute courtesy of Jake Spedding, the visitors were made to wait until eight minutes from the interval to double their lead as Kieran Taylor found space to dive over the line, before opening up room just moments later to cross for his second of the afternoon and see the teams enter the break at 0-14.
The second-half saw Forster’s Crusaders find their rhythm, scoring a further 38 unanswered points as both defence and attack proved to be on top form.
Ollie Brookes marked his debut with four tries in a second-half where Taylor also completed a hat-trick and full-back Lloyd Roby, also on debut, crossed for a brace, before Cole Oakley barged over to complete an impressive 11 try showing in the Duchy to send Crusaders back to North Wales having booked their place in the third round of the Challenge Cup.
You can watch match highlights from CruTV now: