Halifax 30 Featherstone Rovers 10 2007 will be a year that will be well remembered by Featherstone fans for the Grand Final victory, but yet, any Rovers supporter who travelled to The Shay last year will also remember the embarrassment as we left the ground. This year, back in the same division, we travelled to play a team rated second favourite behind Salford to lift the NL1 title. How would the journey home be this year? The answer was - very disappointed. In the end we lost to a team who took their opportunities better than we did. Halifax kicked off and Rovers completed their first set with a good kick to the corner by Joe McLocklan. Halifax on the other hand knocked on at the first tackle, but the play came to nothing and Halifax were soon back on the attack. This time they completed the set and a good kick on the last by Graham Holroyd was caught by loose forward Shad Royston to score under the sticks. Holroyd added the extras. Only 2 minutes gone and Rovers were 6-0 down. Was this the start of a very long afternoon? No not really because the two teams exchanged sets for the next 10 minutes. Halifax did cross the line but good tackling held the player on his back and when the tap was taken back 10 metres the defence held firm. The Halifax attack looked dangerous at this time mainly because both wingers were hugging the touchline which either created gaps in the middle of the park or meant the sliding defence had to be accurate as the ball was spread wide. They created a number of half breaks but the Rovers tackling held firm. Rovers, in fact, were the next team to score. A loose pass by Halifax prop Paul Southern went to ground and Paul Handforth was there to gather the ball and run 80m to score under the sticks. Stuart Dickens stepped up and the scores were level. Just before the quarter and an attack by Halifax was thwarted when Tommy Saxton went low in the tackle. The referee deemed Tommy Haughey's involvement was a flop and with the kick in front of the sticks, Halifax opted for the 2 points. Sean Penkywicz was causing all sorts of problems at this time with lateral jinking runs trying to pull the defence about and Rovers had to make a number of good tackles as he dropped off the ball into the hands of willing followers. Rovers gained field position with a good kick through. Damian Gibson dropped on the ball and then as the Featherstone chaser waited for him to get to his feet, flopped forward another couple of times. Eventually McHugh tired of this and dropped onto the player on the floor. Mr Halloran then gave a penalty, not for involuntary tackles, but for an elbow used by the tackled player. Both teams exchanged a number of sets where kicks through were fielded well by both Saxton for Rovers and Greenwood for Halifax . One good kick through by Tiger did pin Halifax behind the line but back to back sets were prevented when Penkywicz pounced on his own grubber kick on the 10 metre line. There followed a period when both teams suffered from lost ball until, just as the half was closing, a kick through by Andy Kirk was recovered by Rovers. Halifax were penalised for lying on and, on the hooter, Stuart Dickens levelled the scores. Once again Halifax were to score early in the half when after only a minute Mick Govin dummied through the line and was well supported by Royston who scored under the posts to once again give Holroyd an easy conversion. During most of the second half Rovers were to have good periods of possession and on many occasions they came close to the line but were unable to make those last few yards. This was down to good defence by Halifax but this was made easier by the compactness of the Rovers attack. Whereas the Halifax attack was spread totally across the soccer pitch, the Rovers wingers were having to come infield to see some ball and often were simply driving the ball in when yards were needed coming out of their own half. One attack ended with back to back penalties, the second of which was converted into points to close the gap to 4. This was to be Rovers final score of the game. Halifax stretched the lead when their tactic of using the width of the field finally paid off with Haley crossing in the centre. Holroyd missed the conversion but was able to succeed with an even harder chance when only two minutes later, the same cross field move ended with Damian Gibson scoring in the corner. Rovers were now out of bonus point range and a number of incomplete sets due to poor handling and forward passes didn't help. Rovers continued to work hard to no avail although they did come close when Tiger passed out of the tackle when it looked as though he was over the line to score by himself. The pass went to ground and the opportunity was gone. Rovers were still kicking well and forced extra sets both by trapping defenders in the in-goal area and by tackling them into touch on the first, but could not break the line. The final score of the game came early in the last quarter when an inside ball out of the tackle fell to Royston who crossed for his hat trick. Once again a straight forward conversion for Holroyd and the games was sealed. Both teams fought to the end, Rovers with only 12 men for the last 5 minutes after Tony Tonks was sin-binned for striking, but defence was uppermost. The Rovers fans drove home, not embarrassed but disappointed that an equal share of possession should lead to such small rewards.
Half Time 8-8 Referee Mr C Halloran Scoring sequence 4-0, 6-0, 6-4, 6-6, 8-6, 8-8, 12-8, 16-8, 18-8, 18-10, 22-10, 24-10, 28-10, 30-10 Game breaker: Back to back tries at the end of the third quarterlifted Halifax out of site. Crowd 2024 © 2008 Stuart Lonsdale Any comments (constructive criticism welcomed) or volunteers please email webmaster@featherstonerovers.net
|
|||||
