Match Report by Doug Thorpe, Action Pictures by Phil Broster.
New Brighton 18 – 15 Rochdale.
Team Sheet: 1 Lee McCourt, 2 Lewis Mullen, 3 John Brotherton, 4 Paul Campbell, 5 Ryan Stead, 6 Loa Tupou, 7 Wayne Clayton, 8 Kati Tu’ipulotu, 9 Mike Gallimore, 10 Steve Dean, 11 Alan Hesketh, 12 Chris Dale, 13 Guy Stringer, 14 Joe Bowmer, 15 Rick Hopkin. Replacements: 16 Dan Stafford, 17 Josh Bates, 18 Martyn Canham.
New Brighton did well to win this hard fought contest, crossing the line three times to twice by their opponents. A good performance by the Blues forwards, lock forward Ryan Stead was voted Man of the Match, with Kati and Paul Campbell claiming two of the tries and the third by Rick Hopkin from a position set up from a series of driving plays by the pack. Rochdale are a useful side and whenever their forwards provide quality possession their backs are capable of asking a lot of very searching questions. New Brighton survived a rocky period in the first half which was absolutely crucial to returning the eventual result. Coach Steve Dorrington commented after the game “When we were good we were very good but there were times when we were awful”.
The Blues kicked off with the benefit of the bitingly cold breeze and with total command of the ball for the first ten minutes went ahead when an unstoppable Kati pealed off from the base of a well controlled rolling maul to crash over. A confident start but Rochdale came roaring back raising the pulse rates with an excellent movement starting from well in their own half and culminating in a try by centre Mark Thomas which Mike Bradwell converted with ease. New Brighton found themselves down by five points to seven on twelve minutes and continuing under pressure from a lively back line, now with plenty of ball to play with, for the rest of the first quarter. Tackles made were not preventing the offload and the Blues faced the reality that this was not going to be a stroll in the park.
Later in the half the forwards upped a gear to regain a vestige of control and it was the turn of the Blues backs to show their paces with a break by Steve Dean which should have resulted in a score and Rick Hopkin adding punch to the line to create another real chance. However, the single result was a penalty goal on 33 minutes which gave New Brighton the lead at the break, all be it by a single point.
A driving maul forced Paul Campbell over on the 48th minute to open up a gap but the advantage was lost some three minutes later when Kati attracted a yellow card in front of his own posts. Rochdale opting to take on the depleted opposition took a tap penalty and went for the try rather than take the points from a penalty goal. The attack was repulsed but referee Mr Nigel Stephenson decreed that the defenders had not retired behind their own line and awarded a repeat penalty from which Rochdale, not wishing to take on the defence a second time, decided to take the points to reduce the deficit to 10 points against 13.
New Brighton made no mistakes while Rochdale had lock David Healy in the sin bin, the power came on when it mattered. A rolling maul set up the position on the left, a quick ball to Rick Hopkin steaming up on the short side the speeding full back was over the line to increase the lead. Trailing by 18 points to 10, Rochdale needed two scores to win. A penalty goal attempt from 42 metres drifted tantalisingly wide but some adept handling did give wing Sean Campbell a space on the outside which he commanded brilliantly to win the race to the line. With the New Brighton lead down to three points there was too little time left on the clock for Rochdale and Blues held out comfortably to claim the points.
The win was marred by the loss of Mike Gallimore with what appears to be a serious ankle injury in the dying minutes of the game. With typical aggression he tried to force a way through a gap on his way to the line but fell badly in the tackle. We will report further when the result of his X-Ray are made available.
Final Score: New Brighton 18 – 15 Rochdale.