TWO serious injuries marred Windermere's comfortable victory over bottom of the table Furness.

Just before half time prop Jamie Hardman fractured his ankle and deep into the second half hooker Shaun Stafford also departed with a badly damaged ankle.

Windermere's scoring began in the 14th minute. From a scrum on halfway the ball which was eventually passed to centre Dan Blenkharn. His straight run included shaking off four tackles before passing the ball to Bob Skelly who was held up five metres from the Furness line. But John Sheasby was on hand to carry the ball over for the first try, Phil Gavin making the conversion.

Immediately after the restart Furness were awarded a penalty on the Windermere 10-metre line which they converted to make it 7-3.

Windermere's scrum put their first real shove on 28 minutes, the move ending in a penalty which was taken quickly and Jason Brown scored the first of his three tries. Gavin again made the conversion.

Five minutes later Brown scored his second try following good handling by both backs and forwards,. Gavin adding the extra two points for 21-3.

First-half injury time brought disaster as prop Hardman sustained a left ankle injury and was replaced by Steven Bragg during the half time break.

Windermere started the second half very strongly and after five minutes captain Dan Harrison found himself with ball 15 metres from the Furness line. Props are not expected to sidestep but his attempt sent the Furness defence the wrong way and the way opened for an unconverted try.

Ten minutes into the second half Brown was on hand to gather the ball and, after a powerful run, passed to Jeremy Wood who ran in the try . This also went unconverted.

Furness applied pressure for ten minutes, but the Windermere defence was too strong and outside half Proctor eventually cleared the ball.

Windermere's handling was of the highest quality and it led to a two-man overlap with Sheasby scoring his second try.

In a second major injury hooker Shaun Stafford also injured his ankle which called called for a major re-adjustment in the pack with Chris Sansom moving from the back row to take over hooking duties.

Five minutes from the end man of the match Brown scored his third try, which also went unconverted.