Rochdale 5 Sheffield Tigers 27

Rochdale knew their work would be cut out to overcome a large well organised side such as Tigers. With six first team regulars unavailable for coach Mick Gould choose, ‘Dale started reasonably well. In the first five minutes out half Collins broke through only to be overalled with two men free outside, the referee adjudged that he was holding onto the ball in the tackle and the resulting penalty for Tigers struck the upright.

Rochdale then had the better of exchanges in the next 20 minutes but neither side could hold onto the ball long enough to create serious pressure on their opponents. From a Dale scrum, Daz James sent the ball left through Pitcher and Mair to Phil Cowburn who used his considerable pace to race down the wing, tackled by the fullback the ball was recycled came to Collins who put a good pass to Mair to go over near the sticks, the try went unconverted. Rochdale became aware that although missing several players the game was within their capability. The Steve Collins and Steve Pitcher partnership looks like it is progressing and several passes of play saw both players having space and vision to move the ball out. Both sides had short periods of pressure but with no team in control. One of several silly penalties gifted Tigers three points and they went into half-time Rochdale 5-3 Tigers.

The second half was to become a steady slow slog for Dale, the visitors became more adept at keeping the ball, winning their line outs and scrummages well and keeping Dale under pressure for increasing periods Helliwell and Riddle in the back row put in sustained punishing tackles to keep the Tigers forwards busy but the visitors backs were getting the ball wide and they scored two converted tries by getting out to the wings. Some of the Dale players began to lose their cool after some of the referee’s stranger decisions this was punished with losing territory and a yellow card for Sunderland which received no explanation.

Wynard Van Zyl knew no fear as he tackled much larger players and Redmon and Rhodes in the second row had plenty of tackling to do to try to wrestle the ball away from the Tigers forwards. Callaghan, O’Brien and Rob Ward all took part in defending against the many rolling mauls setup by Tigers as they looked for their third try. Once again silly penalties given away enabled the visitors to extend their lead, the Dale players must not give in the temptation the back chat the referee. Sheffield’s third and final try came late on the by then the best side of the day deserved their victory. Their second half display was determined, powerful and organised. Rochdale had little answer the surging runs and rolling mauls, perhaps with a full fit squad to choose from Dale could and would have given them a better second half game.

That is not to say that the players used today did not give their all in the game. Certainly at times in the first period Dale looked comfortable and should have scored more first half points. At this higher level of rugby Rochdale’s chances need to be taken more often as today’s game proved that the will be no easy games in this league.