Welham stars in Robins rout
Hull KR bounced back from their derby misery in style as they routed Harlequins 52-12 with Kris Welham claiming a four-try haul.
Last Updated: 05/04/10 6:21pm
Hull KR bounced back from their derby disappointment in style as they routed Harlequins 52-12 on Monday with Kris Welham helping himself to a four-try haul.
Welham's heroics were just part of a sparkling nine-try showing from the Robins who were beaten at home by fierce local rivals Hull on Friday.
However, they suffered no hangover from that loss at The Twickenham Stoop as they took apart a poor Quins side who demonstrated just why they find themselves at the foot of the Engage Super League table.
The visitors did not take long to get on the scoreboard, Ben Galea showing admirable strength to shrug off a handful of would-be tacklers and crash over from a scrum.
Harlequins did not aid their cause with a number of handling errors and only some desperate scrambling from Will Sharp stopped Hull KR extending their lead.
But it simply delayed the inevitable and inside 10 minutes Rovers had notched another try, Matt Cook rounding off a flowing move to canter over the line.
Soon after things got even grimmer for Quins as, during a rare foray into opposition territory, Chad Randall threw out a loose pass which was gobbled up by Jake Webster. The New Zealand international did not quite have the legs to get over himself, but offloaded to scrum-half Michael Dobson who scooted home.
The hosts did manage to steady the ship thereafter and came into the game more as an attacking force, but a combination of handling errors and poor decision-making prevented them from getting on the board.
Clinical
By contrast Hull KR continued to be far more clinical when they got the chance and pulled further ahead of the half hour mark as Dobson's steepling kick on the last tackle caused chaos in the Quins defence with Welham taking the final scoring pass.
Things changed little after the interval with the visitors furthering their advantage with their first real attack of the second period, Welham on hand to finish again after the Quins defence had been sucked in field.
Minutes later Welham thought he had his hat-trick, only for the officials to call play back for a forward pass and Harlequins then finally got on the board with a well-worked try from Danny Orr following a neat move that involved Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Randall.
But any thoughts of a home fightback were quickly quashed as Galea grabbed his second try just before the hour mark.
The home side did claim a consolation score, Randall and Ben Jones-Bishop carving open the away defence allowing Luke Williamson to stroll over.
That was brief respite though, with Welham completing his hat-trick with ease as a simple Hull KR handling move saw the hosts over-stretched out wide.
Welham still had not finished, the winger profiting from more loose Quins play to hack through and win the chase to the line for his fourth score.
Quins' misery was complete in the dying seconds when Rhys Lovegrove bulldozed over from close range as the Robins notched their half-century.