Woolston Rovers 18 Drighlington 28

WOOLSTON Rovers winning run came to an end when they fell to defeat against Drighlington in a very entertaining Kingstone Press National Conference League Division Three fixture on Saturday afternoon at Monks Sports Club.

Rovers, who came into the game one point ahead of their Bradford-based opponents with a game in hand, were without 12 first team regulars due to injury and holidays and Drighlington were able to capitalise on this to gain a hard-fought victory.

The visitors opened the scoring in the second minute when a short ball from centre Ben Nabozny found winger Kieron Roche who scored in the right corner.

Scrum half Mike Sanderson converted and then 21 minutes later full back Tom Moorby collected a Rovers’ kick on his own 30-metre line and he raced down the centre, splitting the Rovers’ defence on a seventy-metre run to score on the right.

Rovers hit back three minutes before the break when stand-off Paul Berry and centre Lewis Hoarty combined to find winger Danny Brown who scored in the left corner.

Full back Will Chadwick added the conversion to make the half time score 10-6 in Drighlington’s favour.

Four minutes into the second half Drighlington prop forward Ethan Hallas broke through some poor Rovers’ defence to score; Sanderson added the conversion and then just before the hour Sanderson shot through a gap and went over for a try which he converted himself.

Drighlington scored once again on 67 minutes when winger Dan Cahill scored in the left corner.

Sanderson goaled but then Rovers forced their opponents into a handling error deep inside their own half and from the resulting scrum Berry found centre Justin Becher who raced 30 metres to score on the left.

Chadwick added the conversion.

Six minutes from time a high kick by Chadwick was fumbled by the Drighlington defence and Brown managed to pounce on the loose ball and score on the left.

Chadwick converted but it was too little too late as Drighlington ran out 28-18 winners.

Best for Rovers were stand-off Paul Berry, hooker Harry Files and loose forward Jake Upton.

Rovers: Will Chadwick; Shane Duffy, Justin Becher, Lewis Hoarty, Danny Brown; Paul Berry, Peter Leonard; Jack Sherratt, Harry Files, Mike Ward, Dan Fearnley, Sean Conway, Jake Upton.

Subs: Chris Brown, Danny Griffiths, Bobby McGregor, Mark Forster.