Sat 15 Oct 2022
Rochdale v WPRFC
15th October 2022 – Park suffers another loss away from home
Rochdale 54 – 3 WPRFC
This week Park were away at Rochdale who were also promoted last season. The conditions were not the best with intermittent rain showers and a greasy ball saw a clunky and scrappy game.
Park started the first half with some good possession and a neat cross field kick from Benny Elliot was collected by Charlie Hyde, but the Rochdale defence stood strong. Rochdale were awarded a penalty in their 22 for Park holding on and kicked for territory, they won the lineout and chipped over and scored on the third phase (7-0). Park had good possession and released Charlie Hyde into the Rochdale 22 and were awarded a penalty which was kicked by Benny Elliot (7-3). Unfortunately, an injury to Dan Williams meant that he left the field after just 12 minutes and replace with Dave Cross.
The game became quite scrappy in parts with both sides making errors but Park were creating chances but could not convert. Our tackling was not the best and Rochdale capitalised on 17 minutes with their second converted try (14-3). Park indiscipline in our own 22 gave away a penalty and Rochdale kicked for the corner and scored their third try from the lineout 5m out (21-3). The remainder of the first half was again scrappy and clunky with the wet conditions playing a part with a greasy ball and a very stop start game and our lineout not working well did not give us a platform to work off.
Half time score 21 - 3
The second half was a similar affair with an error strewn game from Park which stunted any sort of attack, and we did not have a platform to work from and with our set piece under pressure we could not get a foothold in the game. We did have patches of possession, but errors and the penalty count were against us, and Rochdale kept the pressure on and capitalised on this and scored five unanswered tries to run away with the game. To give credit to Rochdale they defended well and took their opportunities.
Final score Rochdale 54 – 3 WPRFC
Team: Benny Elliot, Charlie Hyde, James Wood, Will Morrillo, Chris Twigg, Jack Williams, Cameron Flanagan, Dan Williams, James Johnson (Captain), Jack England, Jake Cornwell, Matt Treacy, Shaun Underdown, Justin Oles, Tom King, Dave Cross, Ross Morrin, and Mike Grant
