ROCHDALE HORNETS 68 CORNWALL 0
THOMAS PEARSON, Crown Oil Arena, Sunday
ROCHDALE had a trio of hat-trick scorers in Lameck Juma, Luke Forber and Dan Nixon as they enjoyed fun in the sun by putting Cornwall to the sword.
The visitors, playing their first league game of the year, started strongly enough and could have crossed on their first play of the game.
The ball was worked wide to Harry Symons, who looked to have given his side a dream start, but was adjudged to have strayed into touch.
With many errors affecting the flow of the game, the supporters were made to wait until the 17th minute for the first of Hornets’ 13 tries.
A high Gregg McNally kick was fumbled by Harry Aaronson, allowing Myles Harrop to strike.
Then Juma and Lewis Else crossing in quick succession. The former showed pure power to crash over whereas the latter displayed technical genius the glide through. Max Flanagan converted both tries on his way to a haul of eight goals from 13 attempts.
Going into half-time, it was felt Cornwall would be the happier side having restricted and frustrated a normally fluent and free-scoring Rochdale outfit.
But the second half marked the return of that style as the hosts tore the Cornwall defence to shreds.
Forber started the half with a three-minute double off the back of line-breaks off the short ball down the left edge.
With Cornwall clearly struggling with fatigue, Rochdale turned it up a gear with Juma completing his hat-trick with two tries either side of a great Nixon score following a rampaging break from Jordan Andrade.
The fun for Rochdale didn’t stop there as Forber joined the treble club, grabbing his third try with a dancing score down the left before a Flanagan diving effort.
With coach Gary Thornton deciding to rest key players such as Else with 15 minutes left, fans might have thought his side might let up.
Instead, this move was greeted with another fantastic try with eight minutes remaining. Captain Duane Straugheir crashed onto a short ball before showing off his speed to get on the scoresheet.
There was still enough time for two more Nixon tries to give him a hat-trick.
Both efforts came from long-looping passes from the midfield from McNally and Flanagan respectively.
The crushing victory made it 112 league points scored for the hosts with zero conceded (they thumped Keighley 44-0 at home).
GAMESTAR: Rochdale’s Lameck Juma tormented the Cornwall left defensive edge all game with his pace and power whilst helping himself to a hat-trick of tries in the process.
GAMEBREAKER: Luke Forber’s quickfire double just after half-time dampened all the Cornwall enthusiasm and set Hornets on their way to a huge win.
MATCHFACTS
HORNETS
1 Gregg McNally
2 Dan Nixon
3 Lameck Juma
4 Myles Harrop
5 Luke Forber
14 Max Flanagan
7 Lewis Else
19 Jaden Dayes
23 Morgan Punchard
10 Luke Nelmes
18 Zac Baker
12 Duane Straugheir
11 Deane Meadows
Subs (all used)
9 Oli Burton
13 Emmerson Whittel
16 Jordan Andrade
17 Ben Killan
Tries: Harrop (17), Juma (21, 52, 59), Else (27), Forber (42, 45, 65), Nixon (55, 75, 79), Flanagan (67), Straugheir (72)
Goals: Flanagan 8/13
CORNWALL
6 Brad Llewellyn
5 Keenan Dyer-Dixon
23 Colby Nichol
24 Kye Jacobson
21 Harry Symons
27 Ben Dean
15 Adam Rusling
20 Sam Whinney
26 Nathan Conroy
18 Matt Ross
13 David Weetman
12 Darcy Simpson
16 Elijah Simpson
Subs (all used)
22 Jake Lloyd
17 Josh Rhodes
2 Greg Short
19 Jamie Jenkins
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 10-0, 16-0; 22-0, 26-0, 32-0, 38-0, 44-0, 50-0, 56-0, 60-0, 64-0, 68-0
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Hornets: Lewis Else; Cornwall: Brad Llewellyn
Penalty count: 7-2
Half-time: 16-0
Attendance: 568