Rochdale Observer

Consolatio­n tries cushion pain of loss

- HARRY HANSON

TOO late tries offered some consolatio­n for struggling Littleboro­ugh as they found visitors Widnes too hot to handle at Rakewood.

On a very wet afternoon – and only the second match in the last four Saturdays – supporters arrived in their regular numbers to offer their support.

Widnes were on the front foot from the kick off, using their threequart­ers to pass the ball down their back line at a good pace and getting close to Boro’s tryline.

Boro gained the ball and took play up to visitors 10 metres and were awarded a penalty, which was well converted by Nathan Coop to give the home side an early lead.

This was followed with a good catch of the ball followed with attacking play by Mark Murgatroyd, maintainin­g the fine form he’s showed in previous match.

It was a decent start from Boro, but the visitors obtained the ball and, showing good running skills in their threequart­ers, opened their scoring with a well taken try plus conversion to take the lead, which they never lost for the rest of the match.

Widnes started to dominate possession and from a lineout, followed with a strong maul going forward, they crossed Boro’s line again for their second try.

The Boro backline was being tested by the continuous good running and passing rugby played by Widnes, leading to their forwards again creating pressure on Boro’s line.

Credit to the home side, they fought to win the ball and winger Adam Wayne ran well up the pitch to releive the pressure.

Unfortunat­ely, it was a short lived reprieve and back again came the visitors with strong running and passing rugby to cross the line again for their third try, again unconverte­d.

At this point Boro made a forward player change after suffering some twenty five minutes continuous pressure with the visitors having most of the ball.

Still, they finished the half well with a good run up the wing again by Adam Wayne and the Boro forwards attacking with ball in hand. There was also good improved lineout play by Jake Castree to end the half with the score 17-3 to Widnes.

At the re-start of the match Boro were playing with the slight slope in their favour plus two player changes, Andy Walton and Chris Kolbuck back at scrum half.

This gave them new confidence and they started to attack more with ball in hand and worked with most of the play in the visitors’ half of the pitch.

However, after some 15 to 20 minutes play the visitors did manage to advance up into Boro’s half of the pitch for the first time in the half and against the run of play they made a breakaway to score their fourth try. This time they were also successful with the conversion.

And soon after that score they added another, breaking into Boro’s half of the pitch and gaining a further seven points.

Boro continued to take play into the opponents’ half of the pitch but just couldn’t improve their score, even though their opposition received two yellow cards during this period.

With continuous pressure Boro finally got their reward with their first try, scored by Matthew Goldthorpe and converted by Nathan Coop.

Then after soaking up all that pressure in the first half Boro still gave themselves credit and they fought to the last minute of play and wrapped up the match with their second try of the day, scored this time by Chris Kolbuck and converted again by Coop to end the game on a bright note.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom