Hoppers achieved their second win in a row after an uninspiring performance against bottom side Waterloo. With both sides wasting several chances to score this was a fixture that Hoppers could easily have lost, but 15 points from Alex Zavallis-Roebuck and a well taken Phil Whyte try saw Hoppers home.
However, Hoppers did not have things go their own way and trailed for most of the game. Waterloo took the lead inside the opening ten minutes when scrum half Alex Rees squeezed over after a promising line-out looked to have gone to waste. Rees saw a slither of daylight and slipped in between the tacklers to score.
Roebuck reduced the deficit with the first of his five penalties a few minutes later and both sides could have added to their totals as promising backs moves were thwarted by some good defense and poor handling close to the line, the visitors could and possibly should have had two tries in the left corner.
Waterloo did increase their lead when Hoppers gave away a penalty from a scrum 5 metre’s from their own line. The visitors chose to take a line-out instead of going for 3 points and Ryan McKie capitalized on the gaping hole in the Hoppers defence. James O’Brian added the extras.
Hoppers had a number of chances to put points on the board as good work from the likes of Roebuck, Jordan Pearson and Sean Taylor went begging and the had to settle for two more Roebuck penalties and went into the break trailing 9-12.
Roebuck drew the sides level shortly after the restart with his fourth penalty but the second half continued in the same vain as the first with plenty of opportunities but neither side able to convert. In the final quarter the referee’s whistle started to dominate and the game began to lose all momentum.
James Smith was harshly sent to the sin bin for what was nothing more than a physical tackle and minutes later the referee evened up the numbers by showing a yellow card to the visitor’s impressive number 8 Njike Tchakoute. With slightly more space to work in and the addition of some fresh legs of the bench Hoppers took control of the final ten minutes and sneaked into the lead with Roebuck’s fifth penalty goal. Things got worse for Waterloo just minutes after they had surrendered the lead, prop John Nuttall was shown a straight red card for a stamp.
Hoppers saved the best till last though as they rounded off the game with a superb try in the closing minutes. Pearson got things rolling with a determined run into the heart of the Waterloo defence. Dominic Moon and Russell Flynn combined well to put Whyte in space and the centre was not going to be denied on his return to first team action as he backed himself in a two-on-one to beat his man and raced away to score.
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