Under 14s offer promising show
AFTER a narrow defeat in the cup to Rossendale last week, Rochdale were looking to get back to winning ways with a home tie against Huddersfield.
The visitors started with the wind behind which allowed them to pin Rochdale back for long periods.
The early exchanges were fairly even; Huddersfield were trying to get their large winger into the action and Rochdale were exerting pressure at the set piece.
Rochdale’s scrum has been improving recently and it continued in this game, securing all their ball and some of the opposition’s.
With close games it’s the small margins that make the difference and, after a crunching tackle in midfield, Huddersfield were eventually able to turnover the ball and feed the winger, who got into full stride and bumped off several Rochdale tacklers before crossing the line.
Rochdale had a period of dominance but were unable to break down a very solid Huddersfield defence, attempting to use power when guile might have been a better option.
The home side fell for the “sucker punch” right on half time, allowing the strong-running Huddersfield centre to break out of several weak tackles when his progress had appeared to have been stopped.
Trailing 14-0 at the interval, Rochdale knew they could play with the wind at their backs in the second half and, sure enough, this allowed them to camp in the Huddersfield half for most of it.
They eventually made this territorial advantage pay when the forwards managed to split the defence to allow Garratt Myers the opportunity to power over and add to his growing tally for the year.
Huddersfield were there for the taking during this period of second half dominance and this was compounded by some illdiscipline leading to a succession of penalties.
Unfortunately for Rochdale, they were unable to turn this dominance into points.
The killer blow was struck when Huddersfield turned over another ball and transferred it to their small, speedy winger who out flanked the Rochdale defence to sprint in from 60 metres.
There were plenty of good things to come from the game; the set pieces went very well, Rochdale caught and drove well in the line-out. New winger Danny Nobis had an exceptional break from his own 22 demonstrating his power and speed.
Things to improve on are the decision making; when to use the forward power and when to move the ball wide: better support for the ball carrier numerous times if a player made a break, the support was too far behind and this allowed the defence to steal the unprotected ball.
The pieces of the jigsaw are all there we just need to put them together and the rewards will come.
Rochdale host Littleborough tomorrow in what is always a very close but entertaining match.