Mistakes pave way to Waterloo defeat
ON a fine afternoon in Crosby, Dale took on third place Firwood Waterloo in what proved to be an open and entertaining game with both sides producing some top class rugby.
The game followed a familiar pattern for Dale as they conceded early, shocked by the fast passing Waterloo backs and soon were 7-0 down.
Five minutes later, after some promising attacks, Dale lost the ball on the home side’s 22 and saw a sweeping move take Waterloo the full length of the pitch for the winger to score in the corner having outpaced his cover – at 14-0 this promised to be a long day.
It was a day for heroes and Josh Schofield saved an almost certain try as he took down the Waterloo flanker as he broke through with the line beckoning. Minutes later Dale were awarded a penalty in front of the posts and Ollie Coldman slotted the ball over to get Dale on the score sheet at 14-3.
After 25 minutes the relentless Waterloo attack battered another hole in Dale’s defence and the centre crashed over for a third try, 21-3.
The visitors kept knocking on the door and with the pack pressing the line they were awarded a penalty try, 21-10.
This inspired Dale and after a break in play for a head injury to the Waterloo scrum half, they had a great chance when Jimmy Flitcroft made a break down the wing only to be caught by the last defender yards short of the corner.
The game was end to end as half time approached but it was the home side who collected their fourth try when the full back appeared through a huge gap in the Dale defence to score 28-10 at half time.
The second half started in the worse possible way for Dale as the Waterloo pack, with two fresh players brought in, crashed to the line to be held up twice by gallant Dale defence only to see the giant No. 17 find a gap and score under the posts to make it 35-10.
This match was not as one sided as the score line was suggesting with pack leader Ward and De Sousa both making spirited attacks and backs Travis Townsend and Josh Schofield always probing at the Waterloo defence. High kicks from Coldman and later Duffy got Dale moving but again it was the strong Waterloo pack that broke down the visitors defence for a once unconverted try on 55 minutes for 40-10.
Most sides would have folded under this amount of pressure but Dale came back with a hack through from a loose ball on half way and chased down the ball only to be tackled into touch on the 22.
Waterloo started to give away penalties, the referee punishing them for slowing down play and offside, and one such penalty in front of the posts was popped into touch and the Dale line out, which had been good all afternoon, collected the ball cleanly and in a tight passing move Schofield went over to make it 40-17.
Dale were not finished yet and after seeing the normally clinical Waterloo backs drop a pass on the line, they responded with a typical Schofield break down the middle and, with support from the pack, the ball ended up wide on the right and a super inside pass to Flitcroft saw the big wing power over for Dale’s third try 40-24.
Just as things were picking up, Dale tried an ambitious cross field move in their own 22 – a high pass was intercepted by the Waterloo centre who scored under the posts, 47-24.
The last attack of the game came after De Sousa was penalised on the Dale 22 and from the resulting line out Waterloo secured good ball and pass across the line to leave an easy conversion and a final score of 54-24.
A game performance by Dale but too many mistakes against a strong Waterloo side who look determined to get a play off place. Next Saturday Dale welcome league leaders Vale of Lune for a 2.15pm kick off at Moorgate Avenue.