After half an hour of play Thornhill found themselves on the wrong end of an 18-0 score line and with one man in the sin bin. But rather than folding in the face of impending defeat, the Trojans dug in to claw their way back into this game and level the score.

At the time was a fantastic come back for Thornhill, but ultimately the Trojans ran out of steam and the visitors from Rochdale registered a well earned victory on their travels.
Man of the match for Thornhill Trojans was easily Richard Pachniuk. Playing with the number nine on his back, for long periods of this game Pachniuk seemed to be playing like a combined role of half back, play maker, pack leader as well as hooker.

Simply everything Thornhill tried in the first half came from the industrious hooker. However, on far too many occasions Pachniuk’s enthusiasm and go forward lacked the support it deserved.

Richard Pachniuk's never say die attitude wasn't employed by the rest of the team.

Rochdale appeared to had gone over for a well taken try which could have been the death of Thornhill. But Thornhill were allowed to breath a big sigh of relief as the referee ruled that the Mayfield try scorer had gone over the dead ball line. As Thornhill rushed back to take a quick restart Rochdale’s Komah Naumatua got in their way. The referee sent the Rochdale player to the sin bin and awarded Thornhill the penalty.

From this penalty Thornhill made good ground and some good handling saw the ball worked to winger Chris Walker. The overlap had been created and Walker rushed in for a try in the corner. Danny Ratcliffe kicked a wonderful touch line conversion.

Komah Naunatua splits the Trojans defence to cross for a try.

Ratcliffe planted the ball over the try line between the posts and converted the try himself. Thornhill had at this point recovered from their poor start to level the score at 18 all.

Any hopes Thornhill had of salvaging something from this game where quickly dashed when stand off Thomas Draper crossed controversially to score his hat-trick try. With play on the last tackle Rochdale put a kick towards the Thornhill line. Thornhill made a complete hash of clearing the ball and Draper pounced on the ball.

There were all sorts of appeals from the Thornhill players for a knock on or off side. However, these appeals fell upon deaf ears. Rochdale had correctly played advantage and the try was awarded. Mike Kaufman converted.

Late in the game Thornhill’s Matthew Roberts was sin binned for the second time. This time his offence was speaking out of turn to the referee. Straight from this sin bin Komah Naunatua cut inside towards then posts, beat two Thornhill defenders and scored a try. Mike Kaufman converted to seal Thornhill’s disappointment.

Match report compiled by Andrew Byram.  Match Photos Here