The Heughers were short in the front row with Tony Ross being half inched to go on the 1st XV bench and Lee Clayton failing to wake up. After last week's moaning about uncontested scrums by a Middlesbrough side we persuaded Billy Lloyd to have a go at tight head prop so we had 'proper' scrums. Without a specialist scrum half Ste Railton added no. 9 to his list of positions. We were also a man down in the back row so as Matty Dixon was still drunk he was talked into playing there.

Hartlepool and District NHS patients will have been relieved to know that Darren Smith was looking after their health but his late working pattern meant we kicked off a man short. Acklam made good use of their man advantage and put us under pressure which led to their winger going over in the corner. Their kicker put over an excellent conversion to lead 7-0. Then one of their back row made a good break and when tackled he seemed to take ages before passing off the floor to a supporting attacker who scored. The ref said he had allowed the pass as it 'was keeping the game alive'. Fair enough. The conversion was missed but Acklam led 12-0. Somewhat against the run of play though Michael Railton made an interception on the half way line and just managed to keep away from the chasing defence. Daz converted and we had pulled the deficit back to 12-7. We were also coming into the game more and won a 5 metre scrum on the Acklam line which coincided with Pervy's arrival. We locked the scrum and Daz popped a short pass to Ste Flounders who had taken a good line for Best Bean to score a fine try. Daz converted again to put us in the lead 14-12.

HT Acklam 12 - 14 Rovers

With equal numbers we were on top for most of the second half and had the majority of possession and territory. We went further ahead when the ball was moved along the line nicely for Kieran Wright to receive the ball on the Acklam 22. There is probably only Cooper in the club who has a lower centre of gravity than Kieran and he used this to good effect running over his opposite winger and the full back for a smashing try in the corner. Daz put over a lovely touchline conversion and the score was 21-12. Given how well Daz was kicking it was probably a mistake to run a penalty in front of the posts; especially as the move came to nothing. When Acklam also got a penalty in front of our posts it looked like we might have further cause to regret not taking the points but, surprisingly, their kicker missed. We got a penalty right at death out wide and Daz elected to kick to use up time. He was on excellent kicking form though and added to his 100% record by putting over the penalty

HT Acklam 12 - 24 Rovers

This was an entertaining game played hard but fair and with none of the moaning that went on last week. Our discipline was a lot better and the team benefitted as a result. And all rspect to Acklam who also played the game in the right spirit. Despite only having the bare 15 and the team being cobbled together somewhat we played sensible rugby and fully deserved our win. Full credit to all of the team but man of the match goes to Billy Lloyd for coping so well at prop and still putting in a full shift around the park. A special mention also goes to Matty Dixon for the best half time talk this season. I think he must have had something different in his water bottle.

And Ste Saunders is undefeated as a captain in 2016

Team

S Flounders, Stephenson, Addison, M Railton, Wright, Fawcett, S Railton, Saunders(c), Lidster, Lloyd, Hanley, O 'Callaghan, Lane, Dixon, Smith

Next week we have a tasty looking league game home to Old Boys