Woolston Rovers A 26 Bury Broncos 46

WOOLSTON Rovers A suffered a home defeat at the hands of Bury Broncos in a highly entertaining NWML Division Two fixture on Saturday at Monks Sports Club.

Bury opened the scoring after two minutes when prop forward Johnathon Taylor intercepted a Rovers pass and raced 50 metres before finding centre Richard West, who put winger Richard Brogan over on the left.

Hooker Stephen Critchley converted and eight minutes later Rovers lost the ball on their own ten-metre line and the Broncos pounced and put West over wide out on the left.

Rovers hit back on 13 minutes when loose forward Adrian Haughton was held just short and hooker Danny Forster went from dummy half to score wide out on the right.

Stand-off Peter Leonard converted but then four minutes later Rovers’ second row Mark Forster and Broncos’ second row Charlie Delaume were sent off for fighting.

Just after the midway point of the half Rovers had a scrum on Broncos’ ten-metre line and a long ball from Leonard was picked up by centre James Evans, who rounded the cover to score on the right.

Leonard added the conversion to put his side ahead but the lead was short lived as Bury winger Liam Sixsmith broke clear and raced 60 metres to score at the side of the posts.

On the half hour the Broncos ran the ball on the last tackle and winger Liam Sixsmith scored wide out on the left and two minutes before the break Critchley burrowed over from dummy half to make the half time score 22-12 to the visitors.

Nine minutes into the second half Bury moved further clear when loose forward Joe Wilkinson put Sixsmith over on the right.

Critchley converted but Rovers hit back when full back Shane Duffy broke through the line on a thirty-metre run to score on the right.

Bury then firmly took control as they added three quick tries; substitute Daniel Kelly went over on the hour and that was followed by a double from centre Warren Bleur but Rovers refused to give in and Leonard kicked straight from a scrum just inside his own half and Duffy won the race to collect the ball and score on the right.

Leonard added the conversion.

A dropped ball close to their own line by Rovers was pounced on by Broncos scrum half Sean Kelly who scored under the posts.

Critchley converted but it was Rovers who had the final say as substitute Conor Gerrard forced his way over on the right with two minutes remaining.

In the final minute Bury second row Martin Wilcock was sin-binned for a professional foul but it mattered little as the Broncos were victorious 46-26.

Best for Rovers were full back Shane Duffy, stand-off Peter Leonard and centre James Evans.

Rovers A: Shane Duffy; Jamie Thirsk, James Evans, Neil Evans, James Jaundrell; Peter Leonard, Callum Hinton; Mark Robinson, Danny Forster, Phil Stevens, Mark Forster, Nathan Evans, Adrian Haughton. Subs: Olly Hands, Conor Gerrard, Johnny Ryder, Richard Potts.