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Hull Kingston Rovers Reserve Team 18 v 40 St Helens Reserve Team

By Graham Henthorne, Team Manager

This game was brought to an early end due to a sickening injury to Saints’ Kurt Haggerty. Going into a tackle he found out just how hard Danny Cooper’s head can be as both collided with Kurt coming off worst.

The damage had already been done for the home side by that stage as both Haggy and Coops had put together what Head Coach Ian Talbot described as “one of the best defensive halves of Rugby League that he had been involved in”.

The Reserves kept their opponents scoreless and the vociferous home crowd quiet whilst calmly and ruthlessly racking up 30 points of their own.

The writing was on the wall in the first five minutes as the Saints soaked up three consecutive sets on their own line before strolling downfield and getting a repeat set of the back of a great Andy Stott kick.

From the restart Dave Hull got the first of his brace cutting back in from the left. Jamie Foster kicked the first of his five and the Reserves never looked back.

Hull got his second four minutes later after a move started in his own 20 metre area. Good interplay from Dean McGilvray and Paul Johnson got Saints to halfway, and from the play the ball Dean, and Haggerty took it on before giving it inside to Hull to finish off.

The left side attack of Johnson, Haggerty and Dean McGilvray was cutting the home side to pieces and on the back of another repeat set Stott and Jonny Lomax put Haggerty through a gap. Ignoring the support out wide he strolled to the line himself for the score.

Two back to back tries then killed the game off as a contest. Saints got a penalty and using the wind found themselves on the home 20. From the play the ball Foster spotted the gap blind, took it to the lonely winger before feeding Dale Bloomfield for his debut try as a Saint. Picking himself up after being clattered, Foster hit a great conversion from the right corner.

Down the left again Saints found joy as Hull shot through a gap to the fullback before shipping it inside for Jonny Lomax to outpace the defence over the last 40 to the sticks.

Injuries took their toll in the second half reducing the options on the park and resulting in some bizarre combinations. Couple that with the howling gale in our faces and the Saints were less fluent than in the first 40.

A dubious knock on over the line by Dave Roughley from Jonny Lomax’s delightful last tackle chip through the defence was the Saints only threat to the home line in the third quarter. But thoughts of a comeback were well and truly dashed with two tries in three minutes.

A pin-point accurate cross-kick from Stott to Paul Johnson resulted in the temporary winger going in at the left corner. The wind just took Foster’s conversion attempt narrowly wide. The final try came again to Jonny Lomax. Haggy burst through a gap on half way, took it to the fullback and fed Danny Fairhurst in support. He took it on but spying the speeding Lomax gave it to the scrum half to outpace the cover to the sticks.

This win was built around a great defensive display in the first half and a gutsy one in the second by a side absorbing injuries and positional changes and still finding a way to win.

Graham said: “Hull, Kurt and Matty Ashurst were good going forward, the line was led well by Cooper and Lee Cunliffe and a little bloke called Lomax stepped up an age group and looked as if he’d been there for years.”

Hull Kingston Rovers Reserve Team	St Helens Reserve Team
Jack Snowden	Dave Hull
Jason Bell	Dean McGilvray
Lee Gomersall	Jamie Foster
Liam Welham	Paul Johnson
Gary King	Alex Asher
Scott Spaven	Andy Stott
Paul Stamp	Jonny Lomax
Luke Menzies	Danny Cooper
Brett Turner	Lee Cunliffe
Richard Dunham	Jake Emmitt
Jason Sloane	Kurt Haggerty
Richard Lamplugh	Andrew Dixon
James Harmon	Matty Ashurst
Luke Gomersall	Danny Fairhurst
Scott Johnson	Dale Bloomfield
Jon Fallon	Dave Roughley
Brett Robinson	Liam Bland