Hat-trick for Waterman as Knights win 36-12 at Rochdale

York City Knights bounced back from the Sheffield defeat with a 36-12 win at Rochdale in the Northern Rail Cup, with Lee Waterman scoring three tries.

Brett Waller (2), Jonathan Schofield and Chris Clough also crossed over.

Knights assistant coach Mick Ramsden told BBC Radio York: "We've gone a long way to rectifying the problems in the second half at Sheffield.

"We were still a little bit patchy, and we're still working hard on tightening our defence."

He continued: "In the first half I was a bit unhappy about some of our execution when we got close to their line.

"We weren't finishing our sets as we wanted and we dropped a few balls, but we seemed to correct that and in the second half our ball control was a lot better."

The Knights are now in a very strong position to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition. A win over lowly London Skolars on Sunday should be enough.

Before that, the Knights have a friendly against Hull FC and Ramsden added: "Sunday's team is not picked by any means.

"The players who haven't played tonight need to put their hands up (against Hull) and put a claim in for a shirt on Sunday."