Bees 48, Morley 13 - It wasn't a vintage display by the Bees nor was it one by their debutant Tevita Vaikona against Morley at Wagon Lane on Saturday.

But the pleasing thing was that the North Division One leaders still won by 35 points against determined opposition.

"That was a bit different," exclaimed inside centre Vaikona after his first taste of union action for a while.

"I am still getting used to it really and I will do better next time I play."

The Bees' director of rugby Geoff Cooke agreed with the Tongan, and said: "It wasn't our best performance of the season, but we got there in the end.

"Having 'TV' with us obviously adds a bit of interest for people who might not normally watch rugby union, but we will see a different Vaikona when he has a couple of games under his belt."

Vaikona certainly helped to swell the crowd by a couple of hundred, pushing it to the top side of 750, and he certainly enjoyed getting on the scoresheet, albeit in the 77th minute.

After being heavily involved in the first ten minutes, during which he made a couple of would-be Morley tacklers feel his presence, the Bulls star had a quieter match, but took his try well, showing speed and stamina to run in from middle-distance.

"He did all right," said Bees skipper Tom Rhodes, "but we might consider playing him on the wing at West Park St Helens next Saturday with Phil Greaves being available at centre again."

Morley defended well and were only 15-6 behind with 17 minutes to go, fly half David Evans having landed a couple of well-struck penalties downwind.

The Bees opened the scoring in the ninth minute, Vaikona's inside pass giving Joe Simpson the chance to put opposite his fellow wing Peter Sutcliffe over.

Drives by centre Stuart Dixon and second row Barry Clark then gave Rhodes the opportunity to cross, and prop Peter Hall completed the first-half scoring with a try after scrum half Joe Nau had made some hard yards.

Morley did not concede any points when second row Ian Hare was in the sin-bin for stamping, and their tackling drew applause from the visiting fans.

However, they rather caved in late on, Sutcliffe, No 8 Chris Halau'ifa, Dixon, Vaikona and Clark all scoring tries, Rhodes landing four conversions. Scrum half Sean Dadswell scored a defiant try for Morley eight minutes from time.

With the Bees marching triumphantly on, they are going to have to get used to sides trying to spoil and opt for damage limitation, particularly at Wagon lane.

This match wasn't pretty, but it still showed the potency of the hosts' attack, even though they didn't match their 55.4 point average.

However, one sad note is that they did lose hooker Leon Treco with a broken bone in a hand.