26 June 2021

Unbeaten Rovers rattled up their second 60 plus points tally within a week to register an aggregate of 204 points from the four June fixtures. The Championship’s leading try scorer Gareth Gale led the way with an amazing six tries as part of a devastating right sided partnership with Junior Moors and Josh Hardcastle that the Thunder just couldn’t handle. Although Gale equalled the club record of tries in a game it was Moors who stole the show with an unstoppable display that moved Fev into a 44-0 half-time lead before he was substituted shortly after the break with his job done for the day. It was his cut-out pass to Gale that started the points spree, and his strong break that set up the position to work the ball out left for Rovers’ third to loanee Perry Whiteley. In between Faimanu Brown broke through to send Connor Jones away before Gale got his hat-trick with two further scores, the first off Moors’ break and the second from a neat bit of foot work. Hardcastle then supported Moors’ break to score off a return pass off Gale and Hall supported another fine break from Brown before Gale sent Rovers into the break at 42-0 with his fourth try, courtesy of Moors yet again.

Newcastle’s only promise in that first half came from near misses out wide from Alex Clegg, who stepped in touch before touching down, and Clan Tyrer following clever passes from halves Reece Dean and Josh Woods.  It was Woods who provided their opening score on 42 minutes with a neat kick for Kieran Gill to pounce before the provider superbly converted from touch. However, the Fev procession resumed with another try from Gale of course. Dean Parata, supporting Jones’ break, and Hardcastle, using Gale as a foil before stepping inside for his second, followed him over the whitewash before Bob Beswick burrowed over to give Thunder a consolation with Woods converting again to damage Rovers’ points percentage in the fight for top spot with Toulouse. Tom Holmes then forced his way over before Hardcastle and Gale combined again for the latter to wrap up the scoring on the end of a length of field move through many hands. Hall converted from wide for his eighth goal.