Woolston Rovers kick-start Conference campaign with a victory

WOOLSTON Rovers got their 2015 Kingstone Press National Conference League Division Three campaign off to a positive start when they had an excellent victory over Waterhead Warriors at Monks Sports club on Saturday.

The opening 25 minutes was all Rovers and although Waterhead got back into the game the home side finished the game strongly to record a richly-deserved win over a Warriors’ side that will cause plenty of problems for teams this year.

Rovers got off to the best possible start with a try in the opening minute. Quick hands from loose forward Chris Mellor and stand-off Billy Maunder sent centre Paul Berry away on a 50-metre run down the left and he wrong-footed the full back to score at the side of the posts.

Fellow centre Lewis Hoarty converted and then seven minutes later a lovely long ball from Maunder found winger Christian Taylor in acres of space to score in the left corner.

Shortly afterwards a great scoot from dummy-half by Rovers hooker Ryan Brown saw him shoot through a gap and send Maunder away to score in the left corner.

Hoarty goaled from the touchline and then just before the half-hour mark a long ball from Maunder was caught superbly by Berry and he broke an attempted tackle before sending Taylor away to dive over in the left corner.

Two minutes before the break Rovers had Taylor sin-binned for punching and pressure on the Woolston line from the resulting penalty saw the extra man count as Waterhead created an overlap that allowed winger Ryan Ganley to score in the left corner and make the half-time score 20-4 in Rovers’ favour.

That gave the Warriors belief and six minutes into the second half a great break down the middle by scrum-half Andy Gorey split the Rovers defence and he found loose-forward Jamie Mayall in support to race over between the posts.

Mayall converted himself and then almost immediately a high kick by stand-off Terry Fitzgerald was collected brilliantly by Mayall and he raced over on the right.

He once again added the conversion to narrow the deficit to just four points.

Rovers refused to panic and they responded on 52 minutes when a short ball from scrum-half Ryan Cosgrove found Hoarty who broke through the line to score on the right and then as the game entered the final 10 minutes Rovers made the game safe when a lovely short ball from full back Danny Garcia O’Brien sent prop forward Jack Sherratt through a gap and he raced 60 metres outpacing the chasing defenders to score at the side of the posts.

Hoarty converted both tries.

A minute from time Waterhead had Mayall sin-binned for punching and from the resulting penalty Sherratt was held just short but a quick play-the-ball saw Brown go on his own from dummy half and force his way over on the left to complete an impressive 36-16 win.

Man of the match was awarded to Rovers’ substitute Matt Clarke. He was well supported by hooker Ryan Brown, prop forward Jack Sherratt and loose-forward Chris Mellor.

Rovers: Danny Garcia O’Brien; James Rosson, Lewis Hoarty, Paul Berry, Christian Taylor; Billy Maunder, Ryan Cosgrove; Jack Sherratt, Ryan Brown, Bobby McGregor, Sean Conway, Anthony Clayton, Chris Mellor. Subs: Glyn Roberts, Matt Robinson, Matt Clarke, Mike Rosson.