Swarm make it three in a row

The Rochdale Swarm returned to Tag Merit League action at the weekend with a 50-34 victory over the Featherstone based FevNet Rovers.

The game played for the most part in torrential rain saw the lead swap hands several times as both teams struggled with the conditions.

The Swarm were able to draw first blood as Mark Thomas opened the scoring for the Swarm with a well taken try but FevNet pulled a score right back before then taking the lead after some sloppy defending.

The game then see-sawed with the Swarm regaining the advantage with Pete Marland scoring the first of his hat trick and Thomas adding a further brace to match Marland try for try.

But the FevNet side didn't give in and the teams were tied at half time.

Into the second half and the Swarm were able to rotate their large squad to good advantage and wear down a tiring FevNet defence.

The breakthrough for the Rochdale side came from a penalty 10 metres inside the Swarm half when wing Ste Mason tapped the ball to himself and set off on a charge to the try line which left FevNet defenders grasping at air; Mason eventually stepping the last defender to dive in at the corner for a 60 metre score.

The Mason score gave the Swarm much greater urgency which resulted in a excellent try from Zahir (Zaz) Ahmed after good approach work from Zahoor (Ziggy) Ahmed and Doug McEndoo, and a score to "Big Phil" Cockayne saw the Swarm pull away.

The Featherstone team relied and scored a couple of late tries but Swarm nerves were settled when Thomas crossed next to the post for his fourth of the afternoon and Scott Manock made his fifth successful conversion of the game to bring up the Swarm's 50 as the referee blew for full time.

This victory makes it three home wins in a row for the Swarm as the await the visit of the Wakefield City Webcats on Sunday morning.

Coach Ramsbottom is hopeful the Swarm can continue their excellent home form and put up a good performance against the much more experienced Wakefield outfit.

All Swarm players are asked to meet at 11.00am at Firgrove for a 12 noon kick off.