Eastmoor Dragons 6 Woolston Rovers 14

WOOLSTON Rovers enjoyed a hard-fought victory away at Eastmoor Dragons on Saturday afternoon in the Kingstone Press National Conference League Division Three.

Rovers, who were unlucky to fall to a late defeat last weekend in their opening fixture, were determined to get their first win on the board and despite facing a big physical Wakefield-based side they were able to carve out a richly-deserved win.

Woolston opened the scoring in the 10th minute when a lovely ball from centre Tom Keevil sent winger Lewis Stockton away and he raced 50 metres to score in the right corner and then seven minutes later some great handling saw the ball reach stand off Billy Maunder and his superb pass found winger James Rosson who went over in the left corner.

Eastmoor hit back just before the half hour when a penalty put them deep in the Rovers half and they made the most of it as they worked their way towards the Rovers try line and loose forward Jamie Gollings squeezed over in the left corner. Scrum half James Slater landed a brilliant touchline conversion, to make the half time score 8-6 in Rovers’ favour.

Eight minutes into the second half Rovers were awarded a penalty for pushing and this gave them the opportunity to pressurise the Dragons line and it paid off as substitute Paul Alcock combined with Keevil to put Stockton over in the right corner to put his side six points ahead and in a game of very few chances it was Rovers who managed to put themselves two scores ahead just after the hour mark with a penalty goal from scrum half Danny O’Brien that proved to be the final scoring of the game as Rovers celebrated a thoroughly deserved 14-6 victory.

Man of the match was awarded to Rovers’ prop forward Chris Mellor.

He was very well supported by full back Will Chadwick and substitute Paul Alcock.

After the game Rovers’ head coach Lee Westwood said: “I am delighted that we have come away with a hard earned two points.

“The blustery conditions made it very difficult for us to play in the manner that we would have liked but I was pleased with how we knuckled down and got through the game.

“We will certainly be better for getting a win under our belts but we know there is still a lot of improvement that we can make before our next game in a fortnight at Underbank Rangers.

“It was never going to be easy coming here but the lads really got stuck in and got their just rewards.”

Rovers Will Chadwick: Lewis Stockton, Tom Keevil, Ryan Price-Jones, James Rosson: Billy Maunder, Danny O’Brien: Warren Ayres, Chris Mellor, Danny Griffiths, Sean Conway, Daniel Keogh. Subs Paul Alcock, Andy Addison, Cain Hillen, John Welch.