Rossendale Too Strong For Beverley

Beverley were given a good going over and deservedly went down to their heaviest defeat of the season. It was not a very good performance. In fact, let’s be honest here, it was a shambles. It is a long time since we have seen Beverley play as poorly as this, even if they did eventually emerge with a four try bonus point. Rossendale were clearly up for it and they outplayed Beverley in every department. They were twice as quick about the field, their passing was better, they made fewer errors and they retained possession much more efficiently. They also ran in six tries, although most were more or less handed to them on a plate. All this from a team well beaten the previous week by a Sandal side which Beverley had just trounced 33-17.

Beverley started poorly. They failed to find touch with all their early clearance kicks and whenever they got possession they quickly gave it away again. Fortunately for them their tackling was good and they managed to hold out for twenty minutes before former Beverley player Patrick Pole picked up from a ruck and dived over for the first try. Beverley’s response was to launch their first concerted attack of the afternoon. The forwards drove forward from a penalty lineout, spun the ball wide, and Junior Tupai sent fellow centre Sam Atiola in under the posts. Phil Duboulay converted and Beverley briefly led for the only time in the match.

Rossendale regained the lead when Beverley lost possession in their 22 and full back Roger Dennison sprinted through for a second try to which fly half James Bramhall soon added a penalty. Thanks to poor Rossendale kicking at goal the lead was only 13-7 as halftime approached and Beverley might have had every chance of regrouping at the interval. But on the stroke of halftime prop Leyton Taylor crossed for Rossendale’s third try and at 18-7 it began to look a different matter.

The second half had hardly started before Beverley had a lucky let-off when they lost the ball on the Rossendale line. Bramhall kicked clear and won the race upfield only to kick the ball dead as he went for the touchdown. It made little difference. Within ten minutes winger Nathan Settle had strolled over in the corner with no Beverley defender in sight to take it to 23-7. Beverley unluckily lost Tony Riby-French, one of their more industrious players, with a nasty blow on the head. But by then it was as good as all over. When Beverley almost immediately kicked the ball straight into Rossendale hands, leading to Taylor crossing for another converted try, it definitely was.

Beverley did raise their game with a late flourish. They scored three tries, two of them converted, from Atiola, David Worrall and Chris Infield, the last one a beauty. In between poor passing let in centre Danny Collins for a final converted try for Rossendale. Worrall had a big hand in the Beverley revival, setting up Atiola with a fine burst from a lineout and then scoring his own try with a superb run from a tapped penalty on the visitors’ ten metre line. It was a much improved last ten minutes by Beverley and the tries were all good ones but you could still hardly call it a purple patch of rugby.

After generally playing well all season this was probably ‘just one of those days’ for Beverley. They certainly missed their absent wingers Jelencic and Walden but the passing and kicking out of hand was poor, and the erratic lineout play continues to be a matter of concern. Poor discipline with two yellow cards today is not helping much either. Beverley will almost certainly not play as poorly again all season but they do need to start putting together a few more victories. At least today a bonus point was something, even if they did scarcely deserve it.