THE moment we have all been waiting for is now just five days away - York Wasps' final match of a quite awful season.

Yesterday's 50-12 defeat at Swinton Lions was the third successive half century conceded by the Wasps.

At least Friday night's home encounter with bottom club Lancashire Lynx should buck that trend.

But it won't be an easy ride if York reproduce this kind of lack-lustre display which has dogged their season.

Rich Hayes and Steve Hill, as ever, played their hearts out. No real surprise there, as Wasps fans have come to expect nothing less from these two front row trojans.

Darren Callaghan also gave it his best shot but was let down by the bulk of the players around him.

That apart, the Wasps fully deserved their thrashing. The early indications suggested it might be an even bigger scoreline, though it wasn't all good news for Swinton.

Hooker Chris Highton was stretchered off after just three minutes and it later emerged that he had broken his leg.

However his departure didn't make much difference to proceedings on the field.

Winger Richard Henare finished off a fine break from stand-off Andy Craig to score after just seven minutes, and two minutes later impressive scrum-half Ian Watson sent Sean Casey scurrying under the posts.

With Watson adding the extras to both, York found themselves 12-0 down with just ten minutes gone.

Callaghan reduced the deficit with a penalty before Swinton hit the Wasps with another double whammy. Good handling from the Lions saw Casey expose the overlap on York's right wing and Paul Loughlin put speedy winger Marlon Billy in at the corner.

Straight from the kick-off came the try of the match.

Second rower Paul Smith made a superb break from his own 30 metre line, offloaded to Henare who scorched down the left wing, shrugged off a poor tackle from Matt Woodcock and found Craig on his inside to score under the posts.

Watson's conversion made it 22-2 but Andrew Lambert gave York some hope with an opportunist try ten minutes before the break.

Lions sub Paul Barrow lost the ball in a cracking tackle by Alan Pallister and Lambert picked it up 30 metres out to run unopposed to the Swinton line.

Those closing stages of the first half was York's best spell of the match and at times they had Swinton rattled. Unfortunately, they went back to sleep in the second half - and sleeping in the Lions' den is always likely to end in disaster.

Just two minutes after the break Swinton were in again, centre Phil Coussons winning the race to the ball after a kick through.

Even when they were down to 12 men following Paul Barrow's sin-binning for holding down, the Lions didn't let up.

Mick Nanyn put fellow sub Jason Roach in after Ian Watson had picked up a loose York pass, Watson tagging on the conversion to make it 34-8.

Lambert gave York a bit of respite with his second try in the corner following good passing from Callaghan and Kevin Gray but it was nothing more than a consolation.

Gray should have scored when he was given a free run to the line by Craig Forsyth but couldn't take the pass. Then in the last five minutes Swinton reasserted their superiority with a further two tries from man of the match, full-back Wayne English, and former Great Britain centre Paul Loughlin.

A good victory for the Lions to end their home campaign, and their players and fans enjoyed mutual applause at the end. It was perhaps a bit muted though, as they had been hoping to make the play-offs which they will now miss out on by one or two places.

But on this performance they have some way to go before they can consider themselves true championship contenders. They were made to look good by a York team which still hasn't learned how to tackle. In truth it was a poor game between two very average teams.

The next match to be played at Gigg Lane will be the NFP Grand Final. Let's hope it provides a better spectacle than this one.

dianne.hillaby@ycp.co.uk

Picture - TWO ON ONE: Wasps' Mick Ramsden and Kevin Gray make a telling tackle