Hoppers fight back to beat bottom side Waterloo

13/03/2010
Preston Grasshoppers - 20
Waterloo - 12

by Callum Wayness

Hoppers went into todays match against Waterloo expecting an easy encounter against a team who lie bottom of National 2 North. It was far from that however as Waterloo took the early advantage before a relieved Hoppers side sealed victory with a second half comeback.

After little inspiring action in the first 10 minutes, Waterloo needed to take their opportunities and they did in the 11th minute when they won a line out on Hoppers 22-metre. From the throw Waterloo's packs solid drive pushed Hoppers back to their five metre allowing their scrum half, Chris Banks to whip the ball along the back line and put in Alex Rees to touch down in the corner. The conversion was missed to put the score at 0-5.

A few minutes later Hoppers won a penalty after Waterloo failed to release the ball on the ground, after sharp thinking from Hoppers Tom Ball to take it quickly Waterloo were penalised for not being 10 metres. This gave Alex Zavallis-Roebuck the chance to have a shot at the posts and he stepped up and slotted it straight down the middle to put the first points on the board for the Hoppers.

On 25 minutes the big figure of Waterloo's number eight, Njike Tchakoute broke from the half-way line and with a couple of hand-offs managed to gain 30 metres before spilling the ball forward. However from the resulting scrum Waterloo were awarded a penalty for binding infringements. The penalty was kicked to the corner and the strong line out worked again as the catch and drive pushed Waterloo's Ryan Mckie over to score their second try of the match. The conversion was knocked over by Adam Anderson taking the score to 3-12.

Almost directly from the kick off Hoppers were again awarded a penalty which Roebuck kicked perfectly and this was to inspire a Hoppers comeback as 10 minutes later Roebuck stroked another through the posts from 22 metres out to take the score at half time to 9-12.

Hoppers started the second half as they had finished the first, camped in the opposition's 22. After 10 minutes Waterloo's discipline finally cracked as a penalty was awarded against them for offside and Roebuck in fine form took the three points to level the scores up.

Hoppers maintained their pressure for another 15 minutes, however nothing came from this considerable onslaught.

Hoppers then shot themselves in the foot as they were reduced to 14 men after Anthony Harvey was sin-binned for an alleged dangerous tackle on a Waterloo player. This looked like a lifeline for Waterloo, who had struggled through the second half. However two minutes later the sides were even in numbers as Waterloo's Njike Tchakoute was sent to the bin for exactly the same offence.

The altercations seemed to go in favour of the home side as Waterloo's indiscipline gave Hoppers another penalty which Roebuck again scored to put the score at 15-12.

The nail in the coffin came for Waterloo in the 79th minute when prop John Nuttall saw red for a terrible stamp on a Hoppers player. From the resulting penalty, Hoppers broke out of their half and when the ball landed in the hands of centre Phil Whyte there was no stopping him as he broke through two tackles and touched down to make the full time score a more respectable 20-12.