South Wales Scorpions 30 Hornets 25

Hornets were denied their sixth consecutive victory at The Gnoll

South Wales Scorpions put the brakes on Rochdale Hornets charge up the league and prevented John Stankevitch’s men from notching up a sixth consecutive victory in Co-operative Championship 1.

Hornets led 12-0 early on at The Gnoll through tries from Craig Johnson and Ryan Powell but were pegged back by the Welsh side before the break.

Both teams had racked up five tries by the final whistle, Damien Reid, Andy Saywell and Dean Gorton crossing the line, but the Scorpions kicked all of their conversions to Hornets’ two.

Stankevitch was not downhearted by the performance but insisted that his side must be more clinical: “There was nothing particularly bad. We were the better side but never took our chances. We had all the possession and field positions.

“They took their chances, we didn’t take ours. In normal circumstances our lads would walk through.

“We could easily have won by 40 points and the scoreline doesn’t reflect the game.

“A lot of times we had two options. We didn’t take the wrong option, because both were good, but we took the less good one.”

In terms of preparation for the next game, Hornets will keep to the methods that won them five consecutive matches before the Scorpions clash, including a 28-22 victory over table-toppers Hunslet Hawks.

“It’s not back to the drawing board,” Stankevitch said, “We’ll just revisit the things we’ve been doing in the last five weeks.”

The Scorpions closed the gap on Hornets to just four points, but the Spotland club remain fourth, a comfortable six points inside the playoff zone.