Rugby Lions did what they had to, cement their place in a comfortable mid-table position by winning their relatively more straightforward fixtures before the tougher ones arrive and other clubs catch up on the number of games played.

But they will be aware that really big score was there for the taking to boost their points differential as they failed to score in the last half hour with a wounded and depleted Waterloo side seemingly at their mercy.

But there were plenty of positives for Lions to concentrate on – the slick inter-passing and pace of the backs, the solidity of the defensive tackling and the continuing fine kicking form of Lloyd Warner.

The scores came early and continued regularly through the first half.

Matt Goode showed his strength and then his elusiveness to score by the left-hand touchline on 7 minutes with Warner kicking the conversion from wide out.

Although the Rugby lineout was not to work quite as well as usual, Lions still had enough possession to mount a succession of raids on the Waterloo defence.

Warner added a penalty after 16 minutes and then Phil Reed and Goode combined to send Jeff Gregson home on his return to the Lions side, Warner converting for 17-0 on 22 minutes.

Then Gregson’s fellow winger Tom Harris took over to score two tries before half time.

Lions’ passing and pace destroyed Waterloo and they went into the break 29-3 down.

Rugby were out early for the second half and hopefully determined to cut out the tendency to play too open and loose in defence that had appeared as their lead had extended.

But they were now missing the excellent Goode with a back complaint, giving John Carruthers his first game as his replacement.

Quite against expectations, there were to be only two further tries from Rugby through the second half.

Both came from impressive play by flanker Liam Munro.

Lewis Barker’s reverse pass gave Munro a gap he stormed through, swerving past the shredded Waterloo defence to score, Warner adding the extras for 36-3 on 42 minutes.

Then a Lions lineout saw Waterloo tap the ball back but it was Munro who was first to claim the ball on the bounce and he dived over for his second try before Warner produced another great kick to extend Rugby’s lead to 43-3.

Although there was over half an hour to go and Lions surely had the stronger replacements coming on than Waterloo could produce, there were to be no further scores.

During this last section of the game the atmosphere between the sides soured and there were some scuffles and arguments at breakdowns.

One Waterloo replacement, the slight figure of Alex Rees tried to match the mood but was simply yellow carded for foul play within seconds of coming on and reaching the shed side of the ground.

Still Lions could not profit from the man advantage when the opposition looked all but down and out and that is a disappointment, but a relatively minor one when the game was over as a contest.