Dewsbury Moor opened the scoring in the seventh minute when early pressure on the Rovers line was rewarded as they managed to work the ball out to centre George Croisdale who burrowed his way over wide out on the left from close range. Scrum half Aiden Ineson converted but then eight minutes later a clever little kick into the in-goal area by rovers full back Luke Walker saw winger Alex Dunne superbly manage to beat his opposite number to the ball and touch down in the right corner.

The remainder of the half saw both sides cancel each other out with some robust defence that meant there was no further scoring and the home side went in at half time with a narrow 6-4 lead.

The second half followed much the same as the first with defences on top and coupled with some handling errors in good positions it meant that scoring opportunities were at a premium; Rovers had much the better of the second half without being able to make the breakthrough and then with twelve minutes remaining a handling error by Rovers twenty metres out was swooped on by Maroons winger Jacob Flathers who then sent Croisdale on a sixty metre run to score under the posts. Ineson added the conversion to give his side an eight-point advantage.

Rovers knew they had to take some chances with needing two scores and they gave themselves a lifeline with two minutes left when a smart ball from hooker Ryan Brown put second row Sean Conway over under the posts. Full back Luke Walker converted to narrow the gap to two points but any hope of a remarkable comeback were dashed as Dewsbury managed to regain the ball from the kick off and they worked it out wide to full back Jordan Foster who scored in the left corner to break Rovers hearts and give the Maroons a 16-10 success and that much sought after promotion place.

Best for Rovers were full back Luke Walker, prop forward Matt Clarke and winger Alex Dunne.

After the game Rovers Head Coach John Fieldhouse said, “It really is a hard one to take; the third year in a row we have come up just short in the play offs, the last two in Finals, but we have made massive strides as a club in that time. Our completion rate was only 53% and in a tight game like this was you need to do better than that. We made four clear breaks during the game that we failed to convert into points and that has come back to haunt us. I cannot fault the effort and spirit of the side on the day but we just failed to pull off what would have been a fitting end to the season. We have used fifty two players in our NCL campaign this year and that is far too many; if we are to reach our full potential then we need to be able to put a similar team out each week rather than having to make six or seven changes like we have for the majority of the year. The quality at the club has definitely improved; we have won five trophies this season as an Open Age, four of them from our NWML side who completed an unprecedented Grand Slam including winning their league title so we certainly have a lot to look forward to over the next few years. That is testament to the work done by Andy Penny, Steve Moore and also John Morris with the Under 18s, many of whom have stepped up on a regular basis to play Open Age rugby. The coaching staff have all worked well together and hopefully that will pay dividends for the club over the next few years.”

ROVERS

Luke Walker, Alex Dunne, Lewis Hoarty, Troy Brophy, Christian Taylor, Theo Holt, Conner Muir, Ryan Hickman, Ryan Brown, Matt Clarke, Cameron Davies, Sean Conway, Harry Files.

Subs: Aaron Barber, James Jones, Dan Fearnley, Jack Sherratt.