Waterloo 31 Rochdale 51
The first round of the Papa John’s Trophy saw Dale drawn away to Waterloo a side they have not beaten in recent years. Both sides had regular players missing but Dale were able to give a first team debut to Gavin Bissell and welcome Matt Johnston back at fly half. The pitch was rock hard after weeks without any rain which suited Dale’s fast running backs, pleasant conditions with little wind it promised to be a good contest.
Dale started well with a good attack to the Waterloo 22 a penalty went Dales way in front of the posts and up stepped Matt Johnston to take the points 3-0 after 5 mins. From the deep restart the ball was taken well by captain Josh Schofield but when tackled on half way the ball was spilled and a scrum to the home side led to a good passing move and a try to winger Alex Topping 5-3 on 12 mins. A penalty to Dale for a high tackle led to a line out on the Waterloo 10m line good pressure from the Dale forwards saw Harry Hayes going in for an unconverted try 5-8. Dale were soon back on the attack with nice passing between Danny Joesbury and Matt Johnston ended with a knock on but the deep kick was taken by Schofield at full back and one of his jinking runs out paced the Waterloo defenders and then a neat inside pass to Tom Hesketh saw the mercurial centre glide in for his first try of the afternoon converted by Johnston 5-15 after 22 mins.
Waterloo bounced back with two quick tries following a good dummy by the fly half who scored under the posts 12-15 and then after a penalty at the line out another score by the fast winger 19-15. Dale had another chance when a nice short pass by Johnston saw Heskey break through the defenders but his chip through only found the Waterloo fly half who returned the kick to the Dale 22 the line out was not straight and from the scrum Waterloo got the ball wide to score in the corner the conversion went wide 24-15 with 5 mins. to half time. Another well won line out by Chris Hodgkinson came to Joesbury who fed Ethan Poole who battered his way through the defence and gave a pass to Cliff Howard who crashed over for the try under the posts an easy conversion left the half time score 24-22 in this thrilling match.
Dale started the 2nd half in the same manner Johnston finding Poole who took out several defenders on the 22 and fed inside to Hesketh who sped in for a great try touching down behind the posts.24-29 with Johnston converting. Dale now brought on Ben Coulter and Emerson Lopez to bolster the pack and within minutes Poole and Hesketh combined again after a good run by Jonny Bradley had opened up the Waterloo defence and the prolific try scorer Hesketh completed his hat trick. The conversion went wide so 24-34, Joe Horne was getting more of the ball and when he passed to his captain Josh Schofield he ran in a 2nd try the kick from the touch line drifted just wide 24-39. Waterloo were not done and following a penalty on the Dale 5metre line they passed to the big 2nd row to score next to the posts making it 31-39.
Too close to call with 10 minutes left Dale looked the fitter and with Coulter and Harry Hill solid in the pack and Johnston controlling the midfield bringing in Poole and Jacob Jackson it was a matter of time when these two forwards found gaps in the Waterloo defence this time letting in Gavin Bissell on his debut to score 44-31. Dale were having to defend but with the scrum and line out working well Waterloo were frustrated going forward and even when their winger got through a last ditch captain’s tackle by Schofield saved a certain try , next an unusual penalty when Jonny Bradley throwing in on his own 22 was said to have taken too long organizing his line and the referee reversed the line out and gave Waterloo a chance but a good challenge by Hodgkinson gave Danny Joesbury the ball and his pass on half way found Schofield sprinting through to score a splendid try rounded off by a conversion by a conversion from the touchline by Matt Johnston who had completed a great afternoon leaving the score 51-31 with minutes to go.
Waterloo had one more chance at a 5metre scrum but the ball ran lose to Josh Schofield who placed it deep into the crowd to end what had been a fine game of rugby. Dale go on to meet Middlesborough later in the month well done to the debutants and the Holt brothers playing up from the 2nds together.
David Rhodes. R.R.U.F.C.