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Yere leads rampage over depleted Dons
Doncaster RLFC 8 Sheffield Eagles 78
SHEFFIELD Eagles recorded their biggest ever win over their South Yorkshire rivals in a one-sided Co-operative Championship clash at Featherstone.
Eagles ran in 14 tries to extract a crushing revenge on a Doncaster side which had posted a 23-22 win over them at Don Valley in April.
Three of the Doncaster side on duty that day turned out for Eagles yesterday and all played their part in the visitors' fourth win in five games.
With five untried players at Championship level on debut, it was always going to be tough for the depleted Dons. They had no answer to Eagles' strong-running forwards like Mitchell Stringer and Trevor Exton, the half-back partnership of Kyle Wood and Brendan Lindsay, and the power and pace of their threequarter line.
Papua New Guinea international Menzie Yere, in particular, was outstanding, scoring four tries.
Doncaster, who have lost virtually a full side since the two teams last met, suffered a setback after six minutes when full-back Shaun Leaf was stretchered off after being injured denying winger Danny Mills just short of the line.
Eagles broke the deadlock on 18 minutes when centre Tangi Ropati dived over from former Dons skipper Pete Green's pass. The Dons hit back and second-rower Craig Lawton forced his way over from close range. Skipper Josh Weedon pulled his conversion wide leaving the score at 6-4.
Eagles regained the initiative with Yere strolling through a huge gap in the Dons 20. Full-back Johnny Woodcock again added the extras.
Yere was in again on the half-hour, breaking Mike Coady's tackle to score. Yere then turned provider on 35 minutes when off-loading to Mills.
Dons' defence opened up again on 39 minutes when Yere raced on to a pass 50 metres out and he romped in unopposed to complete his hat-trick. Woodcock's conversion secured a 28-4 interval lead.
Eagles added on 46 minutes when hooker Craig Cook, who had played for the Dons in their 70-6 defeat against Batley on the same ground a week earlier, touched down.
Scum-half Wood, one of the stars of the Dons promotion-winning team last season, darted through a gap ten metres out three minutes later.
Exton then sent Yere racing in from long range for his fourth try on 52 minutes. Woodcock's conversion made it 44-4.
Stand-off Lindsay dummied his way over from close range on 58 minutes. Woodcock's conversion brought up the 50 points mark.
Ropati raced 80 metres for a converted try on the hour after he had intercepted Andy Speake's pass in the Dons first attacking sortie of the half.
Winger Damian Gibson dived over in the corner on 63 minutes. He added two more in quick succession to claim a seven-minute hat-trick.
To their credit the Dons kept battling away and Coady, loaned back to the club for the rest of the season by the Super League champions, burst over from close range from Weedon's pass.
But Eagles had the final word - Green sending Matty Brooks over for another converted try at the death.
Dons: Leaf, McNamara, Coady, Tafa, Colton, Weedon, Speake, Scire, Steen, Benson, Holt, Lawton, Carbutt. Subs: Scott Jones, Broughton, Bassinder, Flintoff.
Eagles: Woodcock, Mills,Yere, Ropati, Gibson, Lindsay, Wood, Hepworth, Brooks, Stringer, Szostak, Green, Edwards. Subs: Cook, Barlow, Exton, Haley.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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