Rochdale Hornets 34 - 18 Hunslet Hawks

Rochdale Hornets

Rochdale Hornets saw off Hunslet Hawks to finish the Super Eights in second position and set up a promotion final in France next week.

Alan Kilshaw made two changes to the Hornets side which defeated Doncaster last week, Ben Moores was rested with a rib injury and Corey Lee was left out. Steve Roper and Ryan Maneely coming in.

Jono Smith made his 100th career appearance in the victory, but was taken off in the second half with a minor knock.

It took just two minutes for Hornets to open the scoring - for the second week in a row Cookson crossed for the first try off the back of Josh Crowley’s flat pass.

Warren Thompson’s break looked to have sent Danny Yates over for the second try, but play was pulled back for a forward pass.

Ryan Maneely muscled his way over for Hornets second try.

A fight ended in Samir Tahraoui and Danny Williams being sent to the sin bin, and with the penalty going Hornets way they made it 16-0 through Chris Riley, who scored his first of the afternoon from Smith’s offload.

Another coming together saw Matt Carbutt and Lewis Galbraith yellow carded. A third incident led to Jo Taira being sent to the sin bin.

Hornets attempted a shot at goal, which was dragged wide, and defended resolutely to repel Hunslet and go into the break with their line intact.

Hornets extended their lead through Cookson two minutes into the second half - he picked a brilliant line from Paul Crook’s clever pass.

The visitors broke their deadlock as a hole opened up in front of Danny Ansell for the halfback to cross.

Jack Lee’s dummy half try was followed by Richie Barnett scoring in the corner after Ansell had kicked a 40/20, and with Simon Brown adding a single conversion Hunslet dragged themselves within eight points.

Hornets replied immediately after Crook forced an error from the restart and Samir Tahraoui finished a great move, as Thompson found Taira with an offload before he sent the big front rower over.

Riley was a constant threat from fullback and had made some great kick returns to get his side out of dangerous on a number of occasions. He was in for his second to kill off the Hawks comeback, with Jordan Case putting him through a gap on the right edge.

Galbraith then popped up with a try after timing his run onto Roper’s chip perfectly.

Hunslet had the last say though, as Ansell intercepted a pass from Roper to race the length of the field, but Hornets ran out winners and will now travel to the South of France for a shot at promotion.