Academy 44-19 Harrogate
By Stefan
September 11 2006
ROTHERHAM Academy kicked-off their season in scintillating style with an emphatic 44-19 win over Harrogate 2nd XV. The game, played at the Bawtry Road training ground, opened their season's league campaign.
Rotherham's seven-try destruction, repeatedly ripping apart the visitor's defence, was produced by a team performance in which openside Jamie Sutton and inside centre Duncan Richardson were in outstanding form. From the kick-off, Rotherham's young side blitzed the visitors as they racked up points at a rate of knots to set up a match winning 27-0 lead within 25 minutes.
Their lighting strikes produced four first-half tries - by Dave Cauldwell on 2 minutes, Tom Baker on 5 minutes, George Glenn on 22 minutes and James Waterhouse on 25 minutes with two conversions and a penalty coming from the boot of Phil Dale - establishing an unassailable margin from which the stunned visitors were never able to recover.
Harrogate, to their credit, fought back and crossed Rotherham's whitewash before half-time to make the score 27-7 at the break.
Two tries early in the second half sealed the home side's win. Replacements Ryan Burrows and Alex Drage crossed the try line on 43 minutes and 47 minutes and with a conversion from Phil Dale extended the score to 39-7.
Harrogate, determined to make a game of it, continued to battle and were rewarded with two second half tries of their own, on 63 and 70 minutes (one converted), before Ryan Burrows bagged his second on 74 minutes to round off an entertaining afternoon.
A super team performance in which the forwards fronted up against bigger opponents and the backs - at times - showed outstanding skills to produces a victory to which all 22 players contributed.
Craig West, Academy Manager, commenting after the game said
"Everybody involved in the game today has come through the Academy system. Considering that the oldest player in the squad was 22, this was a superb performance."
"Some of the squad have been training with the first team over the summer and it really showed, their performance levels have improved and its great to have these guys. Equally, the younger lads who came in blended in well. But now we just need to train together and build."
"One to watch for the future is Ryan Burrows, a Mexborough lad who's been playing at Dinnington."
Craig added,
"... I would like to say thank you to all the people who have purchased Academy season tickets and turned up to support the lads. I'm sure they'll agree that it was an entertaining game."
Next week the Academy travel to Otley and their next home game, the following week - against Geoff Wappett's Bradford & Bingley side - will take place at Clifton Lane on Saturday, 23rd September. Kick-off at 3pm (£2 admission).
| Scorers: |
Ryan Burrows (2T), Dave Cauldwell (T), Tom Baker (T), George Glenn (T), James Waterhouse (T), Alex Drage (T), Phil Dale (P3C). | |
| Team: |
Starting Line-up: Substitutes Used: |