'Dale earn a bonus point away to Bradford & Bingley

In the opening 15 minutes I thought we completely dominated all aspects of the game, the forwards winning all the collisions at the break down and contact area and the backs making huge dents in the Bee’s defence every time they had the ball in hand.

With only three minutes played Leighton Taylor blasted his way over from a catch and drive from a lineout. Bramhall converted.

We kept the pressure on by playing the game at pace, creating quick rucks and with the powerful forwards causing havoc, the backs were looking sharp and the home side were rattled again when Nicholas Fontaine scored an easy try wide on the right. Bramhall missed conversion making it 12-0.

A sudden lack of concentration then followed and we took our eye off the ball. Firstly by missing too many tackles and then by conceding too many penalties from ill discipline. This let our opponents into the game and on 23 minutes they had their first points through a penalty.
Increasing dominance from the home team as they moved the ball wide on every opportunity led to 3 quick tries just before half time to make it 24-12. A combination of good ball retention and skilful running by the Bee’s and some very poor and lacklustre defending from the Dale.
We re- grouped at half time and came out much brighter and were immediately rewarded with a score again by Taylor and more excellent forward driving. However, our moment of glory was soon forgotten as we again managed to miss tackles and let them back in.

As if things weren’t tough enough having had to adjust the back line due to Bramhall and Wilcock going off injured resulting in several players out of position, we made matters worse for ourselves by getting Collins and Fourie sin binned for dissent and recklessness.

The home side were now playing champagne rugby and in the end cruised to a 35-19 win and gaining an all important bonus point.

With the game over and a chance to reflect there were some positives that will hopefully set us in good stead. The forwards were as a group of players excellent throughout. Grant Eddleston had a very impressive league debut. Ali Harper played well on the back foot and Paul Wilcock showed some moments of class. However injuries permitting we will be working harder than ever to make sure that that performance was a one off and we can play complete rugby for the whole 80 minutes next week.

Team; Wilcock, Fontaine, Appleton, Harper, Dennison, Albinson, Bramhall, Collins, Thompson, Dauncy, Pole, Fourie, Taylor, Keys, Greenhaulgh. Subs, Settle, Eddleston, Marshall