A LARGE crowd turned out to watch Wharfedale Colts beat Luctonians 51-0 in the National Cup semi-final.

These supporters were rewarded with a clinical display of attacking and verocious defending.

Luctonians arrived with nearly the same squad that had won the Midlands Cup the week before, but from the kick-off Wharfedale's willingness to move the ball at pace caused problems for the opposition and after a Louis Verity line break, the Greens were awarded a penalty and were 3-0 up.

Great forward play from the following line-out allowed Oscar Canny to break free and only a high tackle on Owen Bullock prevented the try.

A yellow card for the player allowed Wharfedale's pack a line-out and Jack Pinder came up with the first try.

The second try came after great defence on the Wharfedale 22, a turn over by James Robinson and quick hands led to Ryan Hodgson breaking out to the opposition 22, and after four more phases Henry Macnab buried over.

Luctonians had their moments and used their big pack to push Wharfedale back from numerous line-outs, but were unable to get quality ball out to their backs.

The pressure told again with Canny breaking and scoring under the posts.

A fourth try came for Fin Brewster after Hodgson broke and put a grubber kick across field for him to pick off his toes to score.

The fifth try was a great team try, Luctonians again attacking in the Wharfedale half and having their best period of rugby, but a ferocious tackle by Tom Russell and at the next phase Pinder stripped the ball releasing Canny to break and put Russell away to a certain score.

However, the Luctonians winger dragged him down short but was unable to stop the delicate offload to Canny, who crossed the whitewash.

Louis Verity converted three of the five tries and the half-time score was 34-0.

The second half was a closer contest. Luctonians never dropped their heads, but pressure from the Greens' defence resulted in some wayward kicking and errors.

Wharfedale, after defending for small periods, finally got back into scoring ways, as Owen Bullock gathered the ball in midfield and ran into a wall of Luctonians players, but broke three or four tackles to score a great individual try.

The seventh followed soon after, Lucs again trying to play out of their half lost the ball and a neat pick up and pass to Ben Patchett left him with 22 metres to score, which he duly did outstripping the covering defender.

Wharfedale's last try saw carries from Maddison Hunting, Frank Watkinson and Rob Lancaster take the Greens close to the line, and from six metres out Jordan Van Beek rounded the winger to dot down in the corner.

Verity converted one of the second half tries to make the final score 51-0.

Coach Andy Hodgson said: "This was an outstanding Colts' performance and it was a delight to watch and all of the lads alongside the coaches who have all worked hard to get to this position."

Wharfedale will play Old Elthamians Under-18s in the National Cup final at Sixways Stadium, Worcester, at 2.30pm on Sunday, May 5.