Report: Rochdale Hornets 6-54 Newcastle Thunder

Rochdale Hornets suffered a heavy 54-6 defeat in Round 13 of the Betfred Championship, at the hands of Newcastle Thunder on Saturday afternoon.

Despite hitting the front early on, the Hornets proved to be no match for a visiting Newcastle side that moved to within two points of league leaders London Broncos with a 10-try victory at the Crown Oil Arena. 

Head coach Gary Thornton made four changes to the starting side that faced Dewsbury Rams last week as Tommy Ashton, Joe Hickey, George Roby and Charlie McKler replaced Harry Sheridan, Jordan Syme, Dylan Kelly-Duffy and Jamie Dallimore, the latter two beginning their respective three-match suspensions. 

There were also welcome returns to the bench for Jordan Andrade and Lewis Hatton after long injury lay-offs.

Despite the pouring rain at kick-off, it was the Hornets who began the game on the front foot as they took the lead early through Ashton, the centre crashing over from close range after receiving a short ball.

Newcastle quickly began to grow into the contest, however, and turned the scoreline around to their favour with Jack Smith and Harvey Reynolds going over in quick succession.

The Hornets battled well throughout the first half and found themselves unlucky not to score again as Jack Hansen fired a 40/20 which unfortunately could not be capitalised on as Ashton knocked on with the line in sight.

Newcastle ended the first half with another two-minute try-scoring salvo as Jude Ferreira finished off a breakaway following an interception, before Bradley Ward acrobatically touched down in the corner. Harrison, again, made one out of the two conversions to leave the scoreline at 20-6 at the break in the visitors’ favour.

The Hornets came out for the second half looking for more of the same after words of encouragement from Head coach Thornton, who liked the effort levels he had seen.

However, Newcastle stepped up a gear following the interval to score six tries in the second forty.

The visitors crossed three times in the opening 15 minutes of the second half as Tom Inman and Jordan Lipp crossed, plus a second for Ferreira, who was adjudged to have grounded under pressure from Dan Nixon. 

A further two tries in the next five minutes followed as Ward and Sam Cook crossed under the sticks as the Hornets struggled to deal with the pace and power of a quality Newcastle side fighting near the top end of the Championship table. 

With the game drawing to a close, The Hornets had a chance of their own but failed to take it as Nixon couldn’t quite rein in Hansen’s high kick in the corner. 

To make matters worse for the hosts, Harrison scooted over and then converted his own try to bring up the half-century for the visitors.

As the hooter sounded, there was a little bit of a fracas in the middle of the field as Mitch Clark was sent to the sin-bin for leading with a closed fist in the tackle.

Despite a positive first half-hour full of fight and passion, the Hornets ultimately succumbed to a strong Newcastle outfit.

Attention now turns to next Sunday as Goole Vikings come to the Crown Oil Arena in the quarter-finals of the 1895 Cup.

Rochdale Hornets: Flanagan, Nixon, Ashton, Sa’u, Boyd, Hickey, Hansen, Dayes, Roby, Barratt, Wood, Whitmore, McKler. Bench: Hatton, Andrade, Waterworth, Metcalfe.

Tries: Ashton

Goals: Flanagan

Newcastle Thunder: Lipp, Smith, Ferreira, Harrison, Ward, Williams, Pemberton, Antrobus, Inman, Santi, Sagaga, Reynolds, Cook. Bench: Whittingham, Clark, Jackson, Djeukessi.

Tries: Smith, Reynolds, Ferreira (2), Ward (2), Inman, Lipp, Cook, Pemberton.

Goals: Harrison (7)

Yellow cards: Clark (79’)

Post-match reaction