Luke Nelmes: It’s time to make a habit of winning

Rochdale Hornets forward Luke Nelmes believes that his side are steadily building momentum as they head into the second half of the Betfred League 1 season.

The Hornets displayed a rugby league masterclass last weekend as they ran in 10 tries to claim a sweeping 56-12 victory over Workington Town at the Crown Oil Arena.

After suffering a 32-22 defeat in the reverse fixture at Derwent Park back in April, it was the perfect response from Gary Thornton’s side who moved up to third in the table.

On an individual level, it was a milestone day for Nelmes who opened his try-scoring account in a Hornets shirt with two tries in two minutes.

Now, the former Dewsbury Rams and Oldham powerhouse is ready to kick on and help his side to more performances that mirror last Sunday’s game.

Reflecting on the victory against the Cumbrian side, Nelmes said: “Sunday’s win against Workington in my opinion was without a doubt our best performance of the season so far.

“I don’t believe in a perfect performance but that was pretty close, with only a few lapses of discipline that let them off slightly and gave them some cheap field position.

“I think that we owed them one from the fixture at their spot earlier on in the season.

“I thought that, personally, I had a decent game against Workington,” Nelmes added.

“It was great to get over the line for my first try for Rochdale. I’m glad I could help the team to get the win, and hopefully there are many more wins and tries to come.”

With a victory over Cornwall and now Workington, the Hornets have won back-to-back fixtures for the second time this season, and could make it a hattrick of wins when they travel to Gateshead to face Newcastle Thunder this Sunday.

Despite picking up a resounding 68-4 victory over this weekend’s opponents on home soil last month, the forward, who was included in Rugby League World’s Betfred League 1 Team of the Month, is expecting a different challenge to the reverse fixture, but insists that his team must pick up another two points as they head into the second half of the season.

“We definitely need to make winning a habit going into these next couple of fixtures,” he said.

“There are some weekends with no games in between, so it’s vital that we get a couple of good performances against Newcastle and Cornwall that will hopefully set us up to have a big second half of the season.

“Newcastle will be a different challenge at their spot, I’m sure.

“But we will prepare as normal and will be turning up Sunday in the right frame of mind and ready to go.”