Middlesbrough 34 – Rovers 12

Team: D.CARROLL, M.SAUNDERS, L.SAUNDERS, D.HOGG, C.TAYLOR, M.LIDSTER, S.RAILTON, J.FLEET, S.BUTTERY, D.FAWCETT, I.GALLAGHER, J.MONTGOMERY, I.MULVILL, N.HARRISON, M.DEER, M.TUCKER, D.THOMPSON

Rovers started with some decent tackling from Railton and Hogg and a couple of good positional kicks from Fawcett but it didn’t take Boro long to show their attacking potential and they ran a simple unconverted try in after only 5 minutes, 0 – 5.

The forwards were showing a lack of urgency resulting in them being bullied off the ball at the breakdown and what little ball they won was wasted with aimless or rushed kicking to clear their lines.

Things got worse after 15 minutes with Finbar being sin-binned for collapsing a maul. Tucker came on with Lidster coming off but the home pack dominated the following scrum to push over from 10 meters out, an easy kick took the score to 12 – 0.

Boro came straight back again hammering the disillusioned Rovers defence and after a no8 pick up 10 meters from their own line was turned over, Boro crossed for a third try with the kick going wide, 17 – 0, 20 mins.

The worst try of all followed a few minutes later (if you are a Rover)when only one Rovers forward bothered to go into a ruck and Boro obliged by stepping over, picking the ball up and running 50 meters through half a dozen pretend tackles. I’m sure somebody shouted “two” but the try was given, 24 – 0, 27 minutes.

Rovers finally stopped the rot and worked up the field but continued to give the ball away through wrong decisions and poor ball recycling, usually because the carrier was not being supported.

The half finished with the Boro No8 getting sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Chris Taylor but the kick by Daz went wide.

Tommo made a welcome return for the second half with Mark Deer stepping down from full back but he quickly returned onto the wing to replace the injured Harrison. Finbar also returned for Taylor who couldn’t shake off his rib injury from the earlier illegal challenge.

The experienced Boro scrum half was causing havoc at the base of the scrums and despite complaints from the touchline regarding some of the referee’s comments, he was a class player. In fact it is fair to say all of the Boro back line easily had the beating of Rovers for pace and on 3 further attacks they should have scored but failed with the final pass.

Fleet started to make his mark with some hard work taking ball on, finally getting the pack moving, Hoggy, Tucker and Monty all responded with similar charges and Fleet finished with a try from a tap penalty, Daz drop kicked the conversion, 24 – 7, 50 mins.

The referee had a mad 10 minutes penalising Rovers but managed to miss the Boro pack being off their feet at most rucks, to be honest they didn’t need to as they had little competition. Boro finally capitalised with a big lump of a prop falling over to take the score to 29 – 7 after 64 mins.

More good work by Fleet followed and a great clearance from Daz but the speedy Boro backs finished off a simple passing movement by scoring on the overlap, 34 – 7, 70 mins.

Rovers continued to battle and forced their way back up field with Tucker crossing for an unconverted try giving a final score of 34 – 12.

Rovers need to bounce back from this very disappointing performance. Nobody minds getting beaten off a superior side but this wasn’t the case, they have beaten much better teams than Boro this season. Some players simply didn’t try hard enough and were looking for others to carry them, fitness, decision-making, commitment and attitude were all lacking.