22 August 2021

Rovers showed their class as they put 64 points past Dewsbury.  Credit to the Rams, they had suffered a covid outbreak within their squad during the week which hampered their selection options.  This was compounded by Rovers’ recall of Jimmy Beckett and Dale Ferguson. Rovers started the first half well, a try in the fourth minute through Gadwin Springer who picked up a short ball to crash over from close range.  Hall, who maintained a 100% kicking record in the first half added the conversion. Four minutes later, Ben Blackmore opened his account for the afternoon, scoring in the corner.  For the next score, Callum Field showed considerable strength and composure to twist his way through the defence to cross the whitewash. The conversion was quickly followed by a try from Hall in the corner.  This was again followed very quickly by a superb Alex Walker score.  A brilliant switch in midfield allowed Walker to run an excellent line to score under the sticks. Hall added another try on the half hour mark.  Ben Blackmore collected a loose ball in midfield which was quickly offloaded to Tom Holmes.  Holmes made the hard yards and created the space for Hall to pick the ball on the inside and to slide over the line. Dewsbury had the last word of the first half.  An intercepted pass on the rovers 10m line saw Andrew Gabriel run 90m to score the Rams’ only try of the afternoon.

There was a slow start to the second half with both teams adjusting to their half time instructions. Luke Cooper opened the scoring on the hour mark, latching on to a short pass to crash over from short range. What followed was a relentless period of scoring from the Rovers.  Ben Blackmore crossed on the left edge, closely followed by a diving try from John Davies, a superb individual effort from Connor Jones and a landmark try from Craig Hall that saw him pass 1750 career points, which he then converted, his 10th of 11 goal kicks.