Rovers v Billingham

Start of the season and we couldn’t have had a much bigger game to kick off with than against Hartlepool Rovers, the team a lot of people feel unrightfully took our league title from us last season.
Whatever had happened there was a score to be settled and even before the game, there was a feeling throughout the squad that this was going to be the day things were put right, which was made even more so when the opposition walked out wearing the shirts they were awarded along with the title.
Rovers took the kick off and a misjudgement in the wind took the ball straight into touch giving the first scrum to BILLINGHAM back on the halfway line, a sign of things to come, as from this moment on the Rovers forwards knew they were in for a torrid afternoon, the pure size and power of the BILLINGHAM pack drove them back with ease, giving good possession.
After a couple of minutes of scrappy play, BILLINGHAM took another scrum around their 10 metre line and good work through the hands found the ball with Dan SANDERSON on the right wing, who skipped his way past his opposite number and into the corner for the first score, conversion missed.
Half way through the 1st period, BILLINGHAM were awarded a penalty on the rovers 5 metre line, being denied a quick tap, the play was set and the ball given to James WATSON, his pace combined with sheer size and power were more than enough to take him over underneath the posts with the tackler wishing he had never bothered and the conversion followed by DUNNING.
Shortly after Rovers had a lineout on their own 10, which was turned over, the ball made its way back to captain, SUDRON, who bamboozled his opposite with the step of a winger and made a break into the 22 before offloading inside, the ball made its way to Nigel GUZ a few metres out who, from there, was never going to be stopped, no matter what was in front of him, conversion again taken and scored by DUNNING
HALF TIME ROVERS 0 BILLINGHAM 19
Billingham made a lot of changes at half time, mainly due to sheer numbers who wanted to be a part of this team. However, this made for a disjointed start to the half with Rovers having practically their 1st period of sustained pressure of the game, however there was no way they were coming through, not on this day, no matter what they threw, there was a bigger wall in their way stopping them.
20 minutes in, the new formation found its feet inspired from some individual brilliance, new scrum half, Anth ROACH, taking the ball in hand from the breakdown and burning through almost the entire rovers team, just as a tackle was about to be made he put in the perfect pass for GIBSON to score in the corner.
There was still time for WATSON to barrel over for his second score after great work through himself and again the inspirational GUZ, who could only be described as the ‘heartbeat’ of the team.
FINAL SCORE , ROVERS 0 BILLINGHAM 29 , A well deserved and eagerly anticipated win, keep this up and another amazing season is set to unfold.
RICHIE MORRISON

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