Hornets sign off regular season with win
HORNETS followed up their comfortable victory against Keighley Cougars with a home win against Doncaster which cemented a second-place finish in the regular season table with a twelfth victory from their 14 games this season.
Both wingers were changed with Corey Lee replacing duel-registered Tom Lineham and Lewis Galbraith starting as suspended Dale Bloomfield missed out on making his 100th appearances in the Hornets colours due to a one-game ban handed to him from the win at Hemel two weeks prior.
Samir Tahraoui came off the bench and into the starting 13 in place of Warren Thompson who was named as a substitute.
But Jake Shoal was needed as a last-minute replacement for Dave Cookson, who pulled up in the warm-up, meaning he filled in at wing with Galbraith moving into the centre.
It was Shoal who came close to scoring the first points early on for the Hornets when he was bundled out of play a few meters from the line but the first try went the way of the hosts through Ben Moore who scored under the posts.
A good break from Jo Taira found Galbraith who did brilliantly to offload back to the big Fijian as he was being bundled over the line but then a break from Moores ended with his pass inside ten meters out being cut out by the visitors when Galbraith was clear to his left.
A quick exchange of penalties for either side led to the next score which went to Connor Scott who dived over after breaking the Hornets defence to the left of the sticks and when Jordie Hedges added the extras the score was tied at 6-6 after 13 minutes.
Following that score, the heavens opened and that saw some slippery fingers from Doncaster as the Hornets won a scrum 25 yards from their own line and Galbraith was able to slip through the fingers of Jason Tali and almost found Danny Yates to his left but he couldn’t keep hold of the ball and knocked on with the line in sight.
Doncaster were then awarded a penalty five metres from the Rochdale line but thankfully, despite some nifty offloading, the Hornets defence held firm and the kick through on the final tackle sailed over the dead ball line and out of play.
Hornets were struggling to string a set together outside of their own half as they entered the last 15 minutes and when a kick was played into the opposition half by Yates, Hornets were penalised for holding down in the tackle. As normal play resumed David FogginJohnstone came close to handing his side the lead but he knocked on as he looked to ground the ball.
But an excellent linebreak from Yates almost saw him give the Hornets the lead back ten minutes before the break but after swerving around one man he was brought down by two determined defenders just a few yards away.
A mistake from the home side saw a chance gifted to Doncaster which allowed Hedges to add another two points and gain the lead from the subsequent penalty with eight minutes to go.
Five minutes before the break Rochdale were handed their own penalty 15 meters in front of the sticks but, rather than take the easy two points, they opted to run it and Ryan Maneely almost found the try line but was held up on his back. A second attempt the saw Hornets win a goal-line drop out but they then gave the ball away with a knock on after a short kick out from the visitors.
With a minute remaining of the half, Doncaster were awarded another penalty for a ball-steal 18 meters out to the right of the posts and Hedges decided he would take the two points to extend his side’s lead further but he scuffed his kick across the face of the goal and wide so the score remained at 6-8 at the break.
Doncaster came out strong in the second half but they were rightly penalised for a dumping tackle on Jordan Case inside the first five minutes which allowed Hornets to go and put together their first meaningful set of the half.
And it paid off as Benjamin Julien was able to dodge a tackle close to the line and pass right to Corey Lee who made no mistake to touch down in the corner and the home side retook the lead. Crook missed the kick in the wet conditions so the lead was a slender one at 10-8.
Just as the Hornets were beginning to build some momentum in the game and get on top of Doncaster Jono Smith knocked on deep inside the visitors half and handed them possession back. And as Doncaster worked their way up the pitch following that error, Shoal then spilled the ball under no pressure in a much more dangerous position in front of his own sticks. However, some good defensive work saw Aaron Jones-Bishop bundled out of play.
But in the following set, Shoal made amends by breaking down the left wing and kicking ahead for Yates to race on to and slide over for an easy four points. Crook was able to add the extras for an eight point lead at 16-8.
With 15 minutes to go a knock on by Matt Welham gave Rochdale the chance at another set of six on a free play and Taira couldn’t quite get over the line with three players around him but Wayne English eventually knockon to hand the ball back to the visitors.
An injury to Taira saw him be replaced by Thompson as the Hornets doggedly defending their line but they won a scrum deep inside their own half after another Welham knock on.
A Hornets scrum 20 meters out from Doncaster’s line allowed the home side to work the ball across the field and English’s offload to Julien saw him break through a couple of would-be tacklers to score Rochdale’s third try of the half.
An unfortunate error from the re-start saw the ball fail to go the required 10 meters which gave Rochdale a penalty and Smith was then held up over the line.
But a late drop-goal from Yates added the icing to the cake for the Hornets.
So that win secured second place in the table for Hornets as they look forward to this week’s release of the Super8s fixtures.