WESTHOUGHTON Lions put in a dominant display to beat Rylands Sharks A 36-6 in North West Men's Division Four on Saturday.

Lions were quick out of the blocks and good team defending gave them a base to build from.

The hosts played sensibly going forward with the half-back Jimmy Haydock dictating the play, hooker Mike Thornley directing the forwards and scrum-half Nicky Bullough's precision kicking ensuring they dominated territorially.

Despite this, the Lions struggled to score but in the first half but eventually managed two tries.

The first came from Bullough's opportunistic kick from the Sharks' scrum which he chased down to score himself.

The visitors responded with a try of their own before Lions full-back Ryan Berry scored his customary try, powering over Rylands' full-back to score to make it 10-6 at the interval.

After the break, Lions upped the gears to take the game away from Rylands to score five unanswered tries.

Jimmy Haydock crossed first before Chad Boyce scored in the corner.

The try of the match belonged to the man of the match Jay Markland who scored his first for the club.

Berry burst a tackle on the Lions' 40-yard line and ran towards Rylands' try line accompanied by prop Markland.

The latter received the ball on the visitors' 20-yard line and side-stepped the Sharks full-back to score.

The last two tries were scored by Berry, bursting the tiring Rylands line and out-sprinting the defenders to score a 50-yard try, and Sam Pennington after receiving a great pass from Markland to score under the sticks untouched.

The Lions are at home again on Saturday when they host Cadishead Rhinos in their penultimate game of the season.