31 August 2014

After Rovers’ Andy Kain opened the scoring by following up his own kick to latch onto Ian Hardman’s palm-back, Briggs put his stamp on the game with an outrageous dummy and sidestep to leave Tim Spears flat-footed as he weaved through from ten metres out, and after Misi Tualapapa capitalised on a good passing move to stretch the lead, he turned creator to put Quentin Laulu Togagae through to the posts to leave Rovers chasing a vital bonus point after only 30 minutes. The Eagles full-back, who also had a hand in Tualapapa’s try, romped home again shortly before the break after Luke Teasdale had been held up over the line at the other end. Rampaging centre Menzie Yere, who caused problems all afternoon with his off-loads, released Michael Knowles on half-way, and Togagae was on hand to take the scoring pass near the line.

Trailing 22-4 at half-time, the game seemed beyond Rovers, but they gave a much better account of themselves after the break and at times looked capable of more than the bonus point. Young hooker Teasdale wouldn’t be discouraged from his earlier near miss and forced his way over from acting half after only three minutes, but the visitors were soon gifted a soft try when Duane Straugheir snatched the ball out of Hardman’s grasp to race over unopposed from 40 metres. Undeterred, Rovers came back again and Teasdale snatched a second close range effort to bring them within six points after Will Sharp had earlier plucked Kain’s kick out of the air to touch down. But Briggs had the final say as he recorded this second and third tries either side of a fine individual effort from Rovers’ Chris Annakin. He took a fine off-load off Eddie Battye to plunge over, then supported Yere’s blockbusting run to seal his hat-trick and leave Rovers clinging to the vital twelve point deficit for the final four minutes.