Saturday saw Saints make the trip to Rochdale Rugby Club perched on the edge of the Pennines, a fine bright warm day and good pitch greeted the visitors for the second game of the season.
With injuries blighting the start of the season, another three regular starters missing we were glad to see the return of Oscar Crowe and Niall Grant on the bench. From the start it was Saints going forward but the solid scrambling defence of Rochdale held firm until Winger Sam Cotgrave barged is way over at the corner, converted by Smith who was on kicking duties for today’s game.
Rochdale then really started to find their way into the game with Saints player Smith yellow carded, firstly with a well worked try after missed tackles in the centre converted to make the score 7 all, unfortunately for them they butchered 3 more try scoring opportunities with a couple of dropped balls and a forward pass, until finally finding space to score under the posts converted for a14-7 lead in front of a vocal home crowd.
Saints pressed again and a penalty to touch 6m out was driven towards the line where Joe Sanders went over, Ben Jones converting to bring it back to 14 all. Again, Saints pilled on the pressure, but Rochdale held firm until Olly Dodd Sidestepped the defender before going over the whitewash on the stroke of halftime converted by Smith on his yellow card return.HT.
It was Saints who came out straight into attack, but a forced pass was spilled and pounced on by Rochdale who raced over in the corner to pull it back to 19-21 as the conversion was missed. Saints went straight in attack again, with a change of personal, the scrum was taking a toll on the Rochdale pack who seemed to have peaked, and as soon as Saints got near the line it was Prop John Whittaker who was driven over for a converted score to give Saints some breathing space and a bonus point19-28.
Saints started to assert some dominance now but solid defence from Rochdale proved frustrating however a powerful scrum drive 10m out allowed Kincart to find Cotgrave who slipped around the defender to score again converted 19-35.
Rochdale through everything into the game and were held up over the line however a quick tap penalty from a previous offside allowed them to go in after the Saints defence was caught napping bringing the score back to 24-35 as they missed the conversion but gained a hard-earned bonus point.
With Saints again on the attack, it was captain Will Grabe who powered towards the line and tackled however with momentum and arms obviously like stretch Armstrong, he managed to hit the line and score converted, last score of the game bas conversion missed final score 24-40 to Saints.
Not the best performance by Saints who are yet to hit full strength squad wise hopefully a few more players returning from injury but an away 5-point win. Next week Vale of Lune away 3pm kick off.