Rochdale 43 Malton and Norton 29
The first game of the new season was a repeat of last years fixture when Dale lost a close game at Malton this year it was Steve Collins first match as captain. Dale were without Josh Schofield and Harry Hill but welcome Emerson Lopez for his first senior game with Jacob Jackson on the bench. Dale were moving well down the left wing but the final pass went into touch, from the scrum the home side won the ball and created a nice passing move and ending in a try for prop Dougie Poole Collins tried the conversion from hand but the ball drifted wide 5-0. Moments later after receiving the re-start Collins engineered another fast passing move across the pitch and as he got the final pass Collins touched down under the posts making no mistake with the conversion 12-0 with only 5 minutes gone Malton were looking shell shocked and seemed to have no answer to Dales lightning fast backs with Joesbury, Lopez and Johnston linking well with Skipper Collins.
A good break by Lopez saw the ball judged to have gone forward on the visitors 22, ball back to their full back and a good relieving kick saw a line out on half way, a poor long pass by Malton scrum half was intercepted by Tom Hesketh and no one had a chance of catching the stand in full back who sprinted 40 yds to score a fine try Collins added the extras so 19-0 with 15 mins. gone. A sudden change of fortune saw Dale down to 14 men as Declan Conner was yellow carded and Malton put together their first serious attack from the base of a scrum on the Dale 5metre line causing their winger to go in for a converted try 19-7. A second try for the visitors looked on the cards as they pressed the Dale defence and despite the best efforts of Harry Hayes and Kyle Parry the Malton backs put together a nice passing move to leave a three man overlap on the left wing for the winger to slip in for a second try converted to make the score with half time approaching 19- 14 game on! and Dale needing another score Declan Conner returned to the fray and Collins saw a great pass mishandled on the wing but the resulting line out was won by Chris Hodgkinson at No. 4 and the ball moved by Matty Johnston across the field Malton were penalized for a late tackle and Collins tried his luck from 30 yds slotting the ball perfectly to make the half time score 22-14.
The 2nd half started with another yellow card for Dale as Malton continued to press, a scrum on the home sides 10m line led to a rolling maul which saw the visitors go over for their 3rd try which was unconverted 22-19. Collins now called on his centres to find some magic and it was new boy Emerson Lopez who stole the ball after a fumble by his opposite number in mid field and started a great passing move with Danny Joesbury providing the final pass for Cliff Howard to race in at the corner a long distance conversion by Collins saw the score go to 29-19. Good efforts by both sides saw Malton go close and then win a penalty 30yds out well taken by Bulmer the No. 10 to make the score 29-22. Collins took a deep kick off and when the visitors winger knocked on Dale had great chance from the resulting scrum to start a passing move that left winger Howard one man to beat, he dived over the line and the ref judged the ball to be grounded 36-22.
Dale still needed to put this one to bed and it was Kyle Parry stand in Hooker who hacked on 5 metres out the Malton full back was tackled over his try line the drop out went of all people to captain Collins who jinked forward a produced an audacious out side of the boot chip forward which bounced off the post pad into the arms of centre Jack Green who touched down under the posts Collins converted 43-22. Malton needed something out of the game and in the final minutes they produced a 4th try to secure a bonus point making the final score 43-29. A super match well contested by both sides. Stevie Collins starts his term as player coach with a win having contributed 21 points in a sparkling performance with his young side showing they will be a danger to the other contenders in the league. Next week a trip across the Pennines to Moortown, the coach leaves at 12.15.