Rochdale 22 Moortown 23
Once again a last minute score sealed the match as in the corresponding fixture in September where Dale won with a late Steve Collins conversion, this time Moortown managed the last quarter better than Dale to come out victors.
The match had started half an hour late as the exchange referee was stuck on the M6 coming up from Warwickshire and most of the match was played under floodlights. Rochdale had a strong side out with the return of Matty Johnston at centre and James O’Connell at hooker. From the kick off the visitors won a penalty but lost the line out due to good work by Ben Sunderland and Declan Conner, it was Sunderland who broke to the Moortown 22 the tackle was penalized by the ref. and from the scrum Declan Conner broke through to feed Collins who delivered a perfect chip over the full back for Captain Josh Schofield to collect and score, the conversion fell just short so 5-0. The next 10 minutes were all Dale and when the ball was lost a sharp interception by scrum half Danny Joesbury saw the play up to half way. Collins saw a gap for Tom Hesketh at centre and his speed and changes of pace led to a great individual try converted by Collins 12-0 after 20 minutes and Dale appeared to be coasting and soaking up all the visitors pressure and with Ben Sunderland having another top performance the young wing forward was on hand to take a pass from Conner on the 22 and jink his way through the Moortown defence to score under the posts an easy conversion for Collins took the score to 19-0.
Things appeared to be going well when another good break on half way saw the ball passed along the line to Matty Johnston but his final pass was intercepted by the visitors winger who ran in the try which was not converted 19-5. The Dale defence was working overtime as half time approached and with another penalty conceded is was Moortown with the scrum 5 metres out that finally got the ball wide and with good short passes found a gap to score their 2nd try again the conversion was missed so the half time score was 19-10.
The kick off by Collins was a planned move with a switch of direction looking for flying winger Cliff Howard who was tackled into touch just short of the corner flag, Dale won a penalty placed in the corner and a short line out was knocked on and the visitors breathed a sigh of relief as they cleared from the scrum and chose to run the ball a good passing move saw them in the Dale 22 and a penalty scrum gave them a good base to score a 3rd try once again unconverted 19-15. Dale brought on Jonny Bradley at hooker and as they pressed for a bonus try Ethan Poole was held on the visitors 22 Collins took a high tackle which saw the Moortown No. 18 yellow carded, this could have been the break Dale had been looking for as Collins took the penalty to make it 22-15.
Captain Josh Schofield now became the centre of attention as with one of his classy runs he broke through the defence and chipped through for a foot race with the full back the ball squirmed through between the two players but Haddon the visitors No.15 got a hand on it first. Next the high penalty kick was caught by Schofield but he was said to have not released and from the line the ball reached the Moortown winger who appeared to have been crashed into touch by Schofield but after consulting the touch judge the try was given again no extras 22-20 with 10 minutes left. Collins kicked deep from the re start and in an effort to intercept a pass on the 22 Johnston was a judged to have knocked on a received the yellow card. Now down to 14 men Dale were in a similar position to last week at Bradford but could not put enough passes together to get close to the try line. Next to make matters worse the referee chose to yellow card Collins Dale’s most effective player for a high tackle the offence was in front of the posts 30m out and for once the kick was successful 22-23 and the final whistle blew. A good game of rugby Dale should have won with their 1st half performance but let their opponents in with 2nd half indiscretions.
Next Saturday they visit Morley another tough opponent coach at 11.45am.
David Rhodes R.R.U.F.C.
