Rugby League: Sheffield Eagles 38 - 20 Rochdale Hornets

Rochdale Hornets

Rochdale Hornets started their Easter weekend with a defeat, as they were beaten away to Sheffield Eagles on Good Friday.

Hornets were unable to repeat their heroic performance against Toronto Wolfpack a week earlier, as an error strwen afternoon handed Sheffield their first victory of the season.

The amount of dropped ball in a poor first half left too much to do in the second half, and although Hornets improved it wasn’t enough to claw their way back into the match.

Coach Alan Kilshaw made just two changes to his side - Morgan Smith returned to parent club Warrington Wolves and Seta Tala was left out. Danny Yates came back in at halfback, while Richard Lepori was available after serving a suspension.

Hornets’ halfback Lewis Palfrey spilled the kick-off, leading to a conceded try inside 60 seconds.

Shaun Pick crashed over from close range, with Oscar Thomas adding the extras.

Nabil Djalout broke the Hornets defensive line and made his way towards the in-goal on all fours, only to drop the ball when reaching out for the line.

Hornets responded with Deon Cross showing good  feet and pace to break from inside his own half on the last tackle, and sending over Yates in support. Palfrey converted to tie the score.

Another Hornets error from the restart proved costly, as Joshua Toole offloaded to Ryan Millar, and the wide man raced back inside and muscled his way over. Thomas re-established the Eagles’ advantage.

Hornets forced an error deep in their opponents’ half, as a first play knock-on was punished thanks to good work from Cross. He came up with an offload to Dec Kay, who sent Rob Massam over for a four pointer to edge Hornets within two points.

Hornets hit the front when Ben Moores burrowed over from dummy half on the last tackle, Palfrey converted.

Three tries in the final 10 minutes of the first 40 hurt Hornets’ cause; Garry Lo continued his fine scoring run in this fixture by outjumping Kay to Simon Brown’s cross-field kick.

With the scores level at 16-16, Daniel Igbinedion crashed over from close range for a converted try.

Thomas chased down a grubber kick to touch down on the last play of the half. Despite Hornets' protests that the ball had ran dead, the referee awarded the try. Thomas converted his own try.

Cross bombed a chance early on in the second half, when he poked his nose through the defence and lost possession with the try line beckoning.

Massam had a try chalked off by the touch judge due to an alleged knock on in the build-up. Despite the referee being stood right over the incident and allowing play to continue, he went with his assistant’s advice and ruled no try.

A torrential downpour led to both sides being locked in an arm wrestle, going set-for-set trying to get the upper-hand.

With 13 minutes to play Hornets finally broke through, Moores jumping from dummy half before firing a flat pass to Cross, who hit the perfect line to race over and get his side within eight points.

Hornets were hammering on the doo, looking for a breakthrough to throw the game wide open, but a brilliant play from Brown to kick a 40/20 when the Eagles were on the back-foot changed the momentum. A quick tap restart saw Matty Fozard stroll over and with Brown converting it was game over four minutes from time.

Inside the final minute, Lo rounded off the scoring after an error from Lepori was punished by the winger crossing on the left edge. Thomas hit the post with the conversion effort.

Sheffield Eagles: Matty Costello, Garry Lo, Nabil Djalout, Josh Toole, Ryan Millar, Simon Brown, Oscar Thomas, Shaun Pick, Greg Burns, Matty James, James Bentley, Oliver Davies, Matty Fozard. Subs: Daniel Igbinedion, Mark Offerdahl, Max Garcia, Jon Magrin.

Rochdale Hornets: Richard Lepori, Dec Kay, Deon Cross, Earl Hurst, Rob Massam, Lewis Palfrey, Danny Yates, Joe Taira, Ben Moores, Lee Mitchell, Dave Allen, Gary Middlehurst, Luke Adamson. Subs: Dec Gregory, Pat Moran, Toby Adamson. Not used: Billy Brickhill.