Report: Rochdale Hornets 68-0 Cornwall

The Rochdale sunshine made an appearance at the Crown Oil Arena on Sunday as the Hornets continued their 100% start to the Betfred League 1 campaign by thrashing their Cornish counterparts.

The Hornets ran in 13 tries, with Lameck Juma, Luke Forber and Dan Nixon all helping themselves to three tries apiece.

Head coach Gary Thornton made several changes from the side that suffered a heavy loss against Oldham last time out as his side sought to get back to winning ways, with the re-introduction of halves Max Flanagan and Lewis Else proving influential. 

Cornwall, playing their first League One fixture of the season, started strongly and could have crossed in their first set of the game. The ball was worked wide to Harry Symons, who looked to have given the visitors a dream start, but was adjudged to be in touch.

With many errors affecting the flow of the game, the supporters were made to wait until the 17th minute for the afternoon’s first try. It went the way of the home side as a high Gregg McNally bomb was fumbled by Harry Aaronson, which allowed Myles Harrop to touch down in the corner.

The Harrop score opened the floodgates for the Hornets, with Juma and Else crossing in quick succession. The former showed pure power to crash over whereas Else showed technical genius the glide through. Two Max Flanagan conversions meant the Hornets led by 16 at the break. 

The second half saw the return of a fluent and free-scoring Rochdale as they tore the Cornwall defence to shreds. 

Luke Forber kicked off 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 and Juma completed his hat-trick, with two tries either side of a great Nixon finish following a rampaging break from Jordan Andrade.

The fun for Rochdale didn’t stop there, as Forber got in on the hat-trick-scoring act, grabbing his third with a dancing effort down the left before Flanagan’s diving effort brought up the half-century for the Hornets. 

With head coach Gary Thornton deciding to rest key players such as Else with 15 minutes left, you could be forgiven for thinking his side might let up their siege.

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, Flanagan again converting to bring up the 60-point mark.

There was still enough time in the game for two Nixon tries to bring up the hat-trick. Both efforts came from long, looping passes from the midfield from McNally and Flanagan respectively. The final score of the game ensured Rochdale racked up fifty points in the second half alone and won the game 68-0.

Sunday’s victory means that during the opening two rounds, the Hornets have scored 112 points and are yet to concede.

Their next league outing comes in the form of a long away trip to Whitehaven in two weeks’ time, Sunday 22 March. 

Rochdale Hornets: McNally, Nixon, Juma, Harrop, Forber, Flanagan, Else, Dayes, Punchard, Nelmes, Baker, Straugheir, Meadows. Subs: Burton, Whittel, Andrade, Killan

Tries: Harrop, Juma 3, Else, Forber 3, Nixon 3, Flanagan, Straugheir

Goals: Flanagan 8/13

Cornwall: Llewellyn, Dyer-Dixon, Nichol, Jacobson, Symons, Dean, Rusling, Whinney, Conroy, Ross, Weetman, Simpson, Simpson. Subs: Lloyd, Rhodes, Short, Jenkins

Report by Thomas Pearson

Photo credit: Jackie Meredith