After a string of narrow defeats which left them sitting alarmingly low in the league Beverley badly needed this victory. For most of the time the fast flowing rugby played by both sides matched the fine autumn sunshine. Well, it did for the first half at any rate. In the second half Beverley rather lost their way.
They got off to a sensational start. After only three minutes Junior Tupai in his own 22 offloaded in the tackle to full back Phil Dale who jinked his way upfield on a thrilling run of over seventy metres before outpacing the defence to cross under the posts. Within five minutes Beverley went further ahead when Tupai stepped inside his man thirty metres out and crossed for a second try. Phil Duboulay having inexplicably missed the first conversion from under the posts made no mistake and went on to convert four of Beverley’s six tries with some fine goal kicking.
Rochdale hit back with an unconverted try, before Duboulay shimmied his way over for a third Beverley try. Chris Infield then rounded off a fine break by Jon Fisher to earn Beverley their bonus point with a fourth, and direct from the restart Tupai broke through in midfield to send Atiola racing in for a fifth. Beverley were virtually out of sight and it seemed likely that a rout might be on the cards. But Rochdale continued to attack and added a converted try that made the interval score of 31-12 look a lot less dramatic than it might have done.
Quite why Beverley’s play went so alarmingly downhill in the second half was hard to fathom. Beverley managed only one further score – a bulldozing try by Danny Morris who took the ball on the burst five metres out. John Stephenson in the second row enjoyed another fine match as did flanker Chris Brant. Rochdale meanwhile struck back with two converted tries. Still, in the end it was a good day for Beverley even if it should have been better.
Pictures by Paul Linton – Click on the thumbnail picture below to enlarge the image to full size
Pictures by Paul Linton – Click on the thumbnail picture below to enlarge the image to full size
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