Gateshead Thunder 24 Featherstone Rovers 48 After all the talk during the week about lack of commitment and possible changes in personnel, it was a surprise to see Featherstone run out onto the field with only three different faces to the 17 who turned out at Blackpool and that absence through injury was the major contributory factor to those changes. Anyway, whatever the squad, it only took 2 minutes for Rovers to post their first points. After intercepting a wayward pass, Paul Handforth raced 60m before being finally overhauled by the Gateshead winger. Two tackles later the ball was moved to the right for James Houston to go in under the sticks for a try converted by Stuart Dickens. A second score came close when a kick through was scooped up by Waine Pryce In fact it was to be Gateshead who scored next. A penalty against Rovers for a hand left in at the play the ball gave Thunder field position and when a grubber kick through by Russell on the last, bounced off the post, Gateshead number10 Jonny Scott was on hand to pick up and score. Russell made no mistake with a kick in front of the sticks and the scores were level From the kick off Tiger tried to repeat his recent success and bounce the ball into touch but instead it went straight out on the full to give the home side a penalty on the half way line. Thankfully Gateshead were unable to capitalise on this as they were themselves penalised for obstruction on the second tackle. From the resulting penalty and four good drives the Rovers were well inside the opposition 20 and when Kevin Eadie broke from acting half his inside ball to Wayne McHugh gave the centre a clean run through a static defence to score close to the post. The conversion once again gave Rovers a 6 point lead. There followed a period when penalty after penalty by Mr Laughton gave the game little chance to flow.
The lead was stretched even more when two Gateshead tacklers both went high on Paul Handforth. He ducked under the challenge, made good ground and committed the full back before releasing Carl Hughes. Another 6 points. Three consecutive penalties for offside gave Rovers easy yards and when the ball Gateshead refused to lie down, and after a good set, once again on the back of a penalty, scrum half Russell crossed the whitewash only for the Rovers defenders to hold him in the air. Two more penalties against the Rovers for offside saw Mr Laughton warn them and when, on the resulting tap, Steve Dooler was well clear of the defensive line, the yellow card appeared and, not for the first time this season, Rovers were down to 12 men. The final act of the half came when Cakacaka looked to have been held in the tackle but still managed to squeeze the ball out. It bounced to Barron who scored a converted try under the sticks. The visiting fans felt that this had been thrown forward and this did nothing to soften the reception Mr Laughton got as he left the pitch for half time. It took 7 minutes of the second half for Rovers to add to their total. Good work by The same couldn't be said for his next kick. The play had moved well up the field to the Gateshead 20 when Tiger kicked to the right corner. The ball looked certain to go 'touch in goal' until Wayne McHugh leapt to knock the ball back inside where Waine Pryce simply had to 'exert downward pressure' to score. Kicking now from the near touch line Stuart drew the ball well but it still needed a ricochet off the top of the post to help it over the sticks. Rovers should have scored again soon after this. An excellent 40-20 from Tiger gave Rovers head and feed at the scrum where a pick up from the back was fed to Tiger going blind. He seemed to pass too early to Price, without really committing the defender, who was able to get across and tackle the winger into touch. Yet more penalties, the story of the game, gave Gateshead good field position and for the first real time the Rovers defence faltered as they allowed Dan Smith to scamper over from acting half. Russell maintained both teams 100% kicking record and the score was 18-42. The next chance came with a good break by Steve Dooler down the middle of the Into the fourth quarter and the game was getting increasingly scrappy as both teams failed to give enough respect to possession of the ball. Gateshead were to beak this impasse thanks to a total lack of professional concentration by the Rovers defence. A 'disagreement' between Tommy Haughey and one of the Thunder defenders was of more interest to the Rovers line than the man with the ball and Robin Peers went over, without anyone looking like tackling him, for yet another converted try. The Thunder players were starting to make more ground now and it took a good tackle from Scott Wilson to stop a break by Ritchie Metcalfe. The last action of the game was to see Carl Hughes get a well deserved hat-trick of tries. A delayed ball from Handforth saw Carl, as ever, in support and he was able to shake off the final tackler to score under the sticks. With Stuart by now in the dugout, Tiger kicked the goal and the game was over. A good result and certainly an improvement on last week. Rovers must though improve their discipline, especially when faced with a finicky referee like Mr Laughton. NL1 awaits and this will be the real test.
Half Time 12-30 Referee Mr R Laughton Scoring sequence 0-6, 6-6, 6-12, 6-18, 6-24, 6-30, 12-30, 12-36, 12-42, 18-42, 24-42, 24-48 Game breaker: With Gatehead giving a few youngsters a game, the result was never in doubt from the 2nd minute. Crowd 438 © 2008 Stuart Lonsdale Any comments (constructive criticism welcomed) or volunteers please email webmaster@featherstonerovers.net
|
|||||
only for the winger to be picked up and dumped into touch. 
The next Rovers score came when Tommy Saxton had made good ground up the middle. The ball was then moved from acting half to Ian Tonks whose short pass to the supporting Richard Blakeway lead to the second rower carrying two tacklers over the line for another converted try.
was spread to the right Jamie Field was there to score. Whilst Stuart was adding the 2 points, Jamie, who was injured scoring the try, limped off to take no further part in the game. 
the forwards gave them the position and when Richard Blakeway slipped a one handed pass out of the tackle, who else but Carl Hughes was supporting to take the ball and score. Once again an easy conversion for Stuart.
park with supporting players on either side. He elected to pass to the player who was covered and the ball was knocked forward in the tackle. And once again we came close when, much to Carl Hughes disgust he was denied his hat-trick when the referee ruled that he was held up over the line.
