03 April 2022

After building what appeared to be a match winning half-time lead, Rovers had to fight to restore the ascendancy after the Eagles hit back with a much improved performance which yielded three tries that would have troubled them even more with a better conversion rate. The home fans were given a treat with the opening scores as Joey Leilua crashed over for a try, Luke Briscoe added a second and Ryley Jacks dummied his way over. Smith had a hand in the first two, by-passing the highly rated new signing Mark Kheirallah with a cut-out pass to Leilua, leaving him with the formality of a one-on-one, then his teasing grubber evaded Matty Chrimes in-goal for Briscoe to pounce. Eagles had better luck toward the break, when they received a penalty and three set restarts which culminated in Josh Hardcastle’s sin-bin for being the first offender after a team warning,  Anthony Thackeray's long pass saw Ben Jones-Bishop score in the corner. Rovers  increased their lead with further tries from Briscoe, courtesy of Leilua and Smith, and Craig Hall from a long pass from Jacks after his fine break.

The Eagles fightback after the break came from a repeat set near the Rovers line after a 70 metre surge upfield in the opening set. Blake Broadbent crashed over off Vila Halifihi’s neat dummy half pass on the line. Farrell converted but missed the easy kick shortly after when Martyn Reilly scored off Connor Bower’s off-load. Bower capped a fine display shortly after Wildie’s try off another Halifihi dummy half pass, but Farrell again missed the easy conversion. And when Thackeray dropped the restart Smith sealed the victory with his decisive try before Briscoe registered his hat-trick after Junior Moors and Leilua combined with identical out of the back of the hand off-loads.