Waterhead Warriors 18 Woolston Rovers 36

WOOLSTON Rovers made it five straight wins with a comfortable victory at Waterhead Warriors in the final game of the regular league season in National Conference League Division Three on Saturday.

Rovers went in to the game knowing that they were in with a chance of third place if results went their way but with both Drighlington and Stanningley winning it means that they have finished in fifth place and will travel to fourth-placed Stanningley in the play-off semi-final, while Drighlington will entertain Dewsbury Moor Maroons in the other encounter.

Head coach John Fieldhouse said: “We played some good stuff in patches but we were not as clinical as I would have hoped.

"Even though we went over for eight tries we were guilty of bombing a similar number through some poor handling at the crucial time.

“Our defence was strong for the majority of the game although it was disappointing to concede the two late tries.

“We now have a week off before we face a trip to Stanningley in the play-off semi-final and we will use this time to ensure we are ready for our biggest game of the season.

“We beat them at the beginning of last month but this will be knock out rugby with huge stakes and it will be the team that copes the best on the day who will go through to the play-off final.”

Woolston opened the scoring in the first minute when a high kick by scrum half Billy Maunder was caught by centre Lewis Hoarty and he threw out a basketball style pass to winger James Rosson, who scored in the right corner.

Four minutes later the ball was sent out wide to Hoarty, who crossed in the right corner and he landed a fine touchline conversion.

Rovers moved further clear when hooker Ryan Brown combined with stand-off Will Chadwick to find Hoarty, who dummied his way through to score in the right corner but then Waterhead hit back when hooker Luke Du Feu scored at the right of the posts.

Loose forward Jamie Mayall added the conversion.

On the half hour Rovers had a scrum deep in the Waterhead half and the ball reached Hoarty, who went over on the right corner to complete his hat-trick.

Six minutes before the break another move from a scrum saw full back Wil Maudsley link into the line and he found winger Christian Taylor in support out wide and he raced over in the left corner to make the half time score 22-6 in Rovers’ favour.

Six minutes into the second half Rovers had Maunder sin-binned for dissent but while he was off the field his teammates managed to overcome the one man disadvantage.

Second row Anthony Clayton linked up with Brown to send centre Tom Keevil over in the left corner and then just after the hour a break by loose forward Harry Files split the Warriors defence and he sent Maudsley on a 50-metre run to score in the left corner.

Rovers got their eighth try of the afternoon when Files and Brown combined to put Keevil over in the left corner, but then straight from the restart Waterhead regained the ball and substitute Ciaran Dean scored.

Mayall added the conversion.

Waterhead had centre Warren Nixon sin binned for dissent 10 minutes from time, but then with the last play of the game a high kick by the Warriors was pounced on by scrum half Liam Aspin to score on the left.

Mayall converted to make the final score 36-18 in Rovers' favour.

Man of the match was awarded to Rovers’ hooker Ryan Brown.

He was very well supported by centre pairing Lewis Hoarty and Tom Keevil, prop forward Jack Sherratt and loose forward Harry Files.

Rovers: Wil Maudsley; James Rosson, Lewis Hoarty, Tom Keevil, Christian Taylor; Will Chadwick, Billy Maunder; Jack Sherratt, Ryan Brown, Chris Mellor, Anthony Clayton, Sean Conway, Harry Files. Subs: Glyn Roberts, Tom Woodward, Dan Fearnley, Bobby McGregor.