OLD Halesonians boosted their chances of promotion from National League Three Midlands after weathering the storm to beat Scunthorpe 24-7.

Within two minutes of the kick-off, quick thinking from scrum half Nathan Jones saw take a tap penalty and snipe his way over the line before Scunthorpe knew what had hit them.

Moments later, the heavens opened as both teams were hit by appalling weather and for the next half hour, it proved a struggle just to keep going.

But Hales managed to increase their lead with a second try, skipper Richard Taylor getting the final touch to a rolling maul with fly half Stephen Powell converting.

Hales suffered a blow soon after when winger Joe Oxford was carried off with what appeared to be a dislocated knee.

That didn’t stop Hales increasing their lead to 17-0 with a third try just before half time.

Following a great take in the line-out from Mark Evans, hooker Pete Fitzgerald got himself on the back of a rolling maul before crashing over to score.

With 10 minutes remaqining, Hales snapped up their fourth and bonus point try when centre Andy Robinson collected a pass 10 metres out and smashed his way thorugh several attempted tackles to force his way over for the try of the match, which Powell improved upon with the conversion.

Credit to Scunthorpe who kept going and secured a late consolation converted try after Hales had been reduced to 14 players after Dan Young was given a yellow card.

This victory has taken Hales back upto third spot, six points adrift of leaders Broadstreet.