Heughers 8 Middlesbrough 29

Team: M.SAUNDERS, S.BUTTERY, L.SAUNDERS, D.HOGG, D.BAXTER, M.LIDSTER, M.WILSON, C.TAYLOR, M.STEPHENSON, D.FAWCETT, I.GALLAGHER, D.GREGORY, S.RAILTON, B.CUSHLOW, D.THOMAS, S.HALL.

Boro struck first after a simple no8 move went unchallenged and Rovers were deemed offside in front of their own posts. The visitors chose the scum and pushed over for a converted try, 0 – 7, 5 mins.

Rovers hit back with a high ball on the full back, Matty Wilson drove on and Dave Gregory followed up to score. The ref decided the kick was wide, 5 – 7, 10 mins.

Rovers continued to win good lineout ball but struggled in the scrum so Daz concentrated on pinning Boro back with some good kicking when we had the ball.

A penalty by Daz took the score to 8 – 7, 25 mins but the game had no real flow due to the constant, unpredictable decisions by the main man.

The Boro pack used their scrummaging power to good effect with another push over try and kick after another offside penalty, 8 – 14, 30 mins.

Railton was binned on the stroke of half time for not rolling away and Boro chose to kick, 8 – 17 40 mins.

Si Hall came on for Lidster in the back row but only lasted 1 minute and he was binned for another infringement at the breakdown. More pressure on the scrum and the ref gave a penalty try, 8 – 24, 50 mins. He also threatened to bin another of our forwards failing to realise that by pointlessly binning players he was endangering the front row who were being dominated even when they were at full strength.

Matty Lidster came back on for the ever brave Finbar who refused to give in but the scrums were now uncontested. Hogg continued to take good ball in the line and Gregory had a couple of solid runs as did Ben Cush finally getting Rovers a bit of ball and consistency.

The game changed a bit with Rovers being penalised far less and Boro started to rack up the penalty count. I’m not sure why the ref didn’t go to his pocket or even speak to Boro as he had been so keen to do so with Rovers in the first half, if nothing else this confirmed our thoughts of how inconsistent he had been.

Boro picked the pace up for the last 15 minutes putting together some good counter attacks and slick passing. They got a deserved unconverted try after a couple of near misses taking the final score to 8 – 29.