Bears v Hornets match report
Dan Parker breaks away. Picture by Trevor Jones
Bears stung by Hornets
Coventry Bears 10 Rochdale Hornets 35
Butts Park Arena, 3rd May 2015.
ROCHDALE HORNETS ran in six tries giving the Bears their first home defeat of the season on Sunday.
Coventry started the first half in great form off the back of a loss, scoring within the first ten minutes with a great run from Parker down the right hand side, scoring in the corner after Rochdale lost the ball on half way. Rochdale’s mistakes continued as a number of attempts to cross the line failed with a certain try saw the ball being lost over the line. Rochdale had a shaky start to the game in the first quarter with a number of attempts at scoring were missed, they could have gone in at half time twenty points up, but Bears strong defensive line made Rochdale’s half a difficult one. However Rochdale’s swift passing down the left hand side gave Bloomfield the opportunity to cross over in the corner. Bears fought hard for another try in the first half with strong runs from substitute Cooper and Guertjens, unfortunately Hornets defence just too tough for them. Just before half time saw Hornets cross over for another try from English, with Langley successful with the conversion.
Rochdale struck early in the second half with a try from Anthony Walker through Coventry’s defence, another successful conversion. Hornet’s return of the ball gave them a repeat set and Walker’s strong run crushed Coventry’s defence and crashed over the line for a second for the day, conversion successful. The second half was very much Rochdale’s half as just minutes later they went over the line with a dummy run from McClurg sent the home team’s defence in the opposite direction and a quick pass gave Thomson the try.
Rochdale continued their domination of the half, with Bridge crossing over and Langley converting the try. Coventry fought back with a good run from Boutler gave them some decent yards, a repeat set saw them handed a drop out. The ball was quickly turned over again and Coventry had possession, a great individual performance from debutant cross code Rundle, gained the Bears important ground. An unsuccessful kick handed Rochdale the ball but Coopers defence gave them a repeat set from a drop out.
Coventry Bears scored late in the game from a great run from Boutler as he burrowed over the line but it provided nothing more than consolation for them. The Hornets finished off their win a successful drop goal from Danny Yates.
Bears Head coach Tom Tsang commented:
"There were some significant improvements today after last week against York, mainly in the way we constructed our sets coming out of our own half and our kicking game was the best its been this season. But we couldnt back that good work up with our defence and we constantly let Rochdale off the hook with some pretty basic missed tackles when they were coming away from their try line - we didnt build any pressure at all. Again the amount of tackling we made ourselves do showed in the second half where Rochdale had a 15 minute spell scoring 3 tries which we couldnt recover from. We are definitely going in the right direction but need to put all the elements together now.
After the game the news filtered through about Danny Jones and all our thoughts are with his friends, family and all the guys at Keighley. We dont know what will happen with us due to play them next week but we will do whatever is in the best interests of all concerned."
TEAMS
Coventry Bears
1 Cameron Boulter (7)
2 Dan Rundle (42)
3 Eddie Medforth (4)
4 Simon Phillips (13) Capt
5 Reece Chapman Carry (41)
6 Dan Parker (30)
7 Dan Poulton (18)
8 James Geurtjens (27)
9 Alex Brown (9)
10 Tom Hall (38)
11 Matt Reid (50)
12 Chris Barratt (12)
13 Stephen Coleman (21)
Subs (all used)
14 Richard Hughes (24)
15 Matt Cooper (26)
16 Alex Calvert (17)
17 Kenneth Kelliher (32)
Rochdale Hornets RLFC
1 Wayne English (1)
2 Gareth Langley (2)
3 Lee Paterson (4)
4 Dave Hull (24)
5 Dale Bloomfield (5)
6 Ryan Smith (21)
7 Danny Yates (7)
8 Matty Hadden (28)
9 James Dandy (23)
10 Warren Thompson (10)
11 Danny Bridge (19)
12 Jack Ashworth (25)
13 James Tilley (14)
14 Anthony Walker (30)
15 Brad Hargreaves (20)
16 John Cookson (8)
17 Alex McClurg (9)
Men of the match:
BEARS: Matt Cooper
HORNETS: Danny Yates
Butts Park Arena Attendance: 496
NEXT AWAY GAME
This week it has been confirmed by Keighley Cougars that our scheduled match for this Sunday will go ahead and be played at the request of Danny Jones family.
NEXT HOME GAME
Coventry Bears v Barrow Raiders 31st May 3pm kick off Butts Park Arena