Hoppers still searching for win

Hoppers were blown away in the opening quarter by a clinical Caldy who ran in 5 first half tries to secure victory. All the points came in an exhilarating first half and means Hoppers are still searching for their first league win in 2010.

Caldy scored the opening try with barely 3 minutes on the clock. After Hoppers had kicked straight to touch Caldy drove deep into the 22 and from a quick tap penalty they were able to recycle the ball well and flanker Jake Lyon touched down, with Richard Vasey adding the conversion.

From the resulting kick off Caldy again had great possession inside the Hoppers 22 after being awarded a 5m scrum. The home pack was too strong and drove over the try line providing number 8 Josiah Dickinson with a simple score, Vasey again slotted the kick to give Caldy a 14-0 lead.

Hoppers finally got some possession and were harshly penalised for a speculative forward pass but they could not get into the game with any consistency and were again punished by two quick scores. Caldy chose to go for a lineout from a penalty inside the 22 and while Hoppers dealt with the initial catch and drive well they were unable to stop lock Jack Collister from powering over from close range at the second attempt. Soon after they capitalised on a poor 22 drop out and moved quickly from left to right putting Dickinson in space and his determined run combined with some poor tackling saw him cross in the corner and secure the try bonus point. Vasey’s conversion took the score to 26-0 with only a quarter of the game played.

Hoppers were eventually able to stop the flow of points and looked promising in possession, Tom Ball’s impressive break provided the catalyst and after recycling well Tom Hughes put full back Owen McKenna into space to score.

Caldy responded on the half hour mark after Lyon’s good break, he burst down the right touchline and set up full back Ben Macpherson who evaded the would be tacklers to score, Vasey again converted.

Hoppers scored with the last act of the half to give them a glimmer of hope, Hughes again was the provider as his line break and well timed pass released Alex Zavallis-Roebuck and he shrugged off the tackles to cross and take the sides into the half 33-10.

The second half was played exclusively in Caldy’s half but somehow Hoppers were unable to score a single point. They created several clear cut chances but were thwarted by the bounce of the ball and some poor handling. On a couple of occasions they got behind the defence inside the 22 but could not execute returning home for the second week running empty handed.

James Smith’s chip over the top would have set up Zavallis-Roebuck for his second had the ball not bounced agonisingly into touch. Steffan Thomas and Tom Hughes got over the gain line several times and the back row looked eager for work and came out in the second half with rejuvenated vigour as Hoppers began to look dangerous and found a higher gear. A couple of missed passes stopped attacks in their tracks and had any of these been converted it would have made for an interesting finale, especially as Caldy were reduced to 14 men when prop Derek Salisbury received a yellow card for a multitude of fouls in a 5 minute period where he seemed to lose his head in frustration.

Hoppers travel to Hull next week to complete a trio of tricky away games before finally returning home to Lightfoot Green on the 27th February to face Kendal.