Knights on form in Rochdale win

York City Knights bounced back from their defeat at Keighley with a comprehensive win over Rochdale in Championship One.

The Knights scored eight tries in the 44-14 victory which pleased director of rugby James Ratcliffe.

"We literally just spoke about sticking to a game plan and we've done it exactly as we wanted to," he told BBC Radio York.

"We got the result we obviously worked hard to get."

Ratcliffe said the team had been strong in every aspect of play.

"You could see with how [Rochdale coach] Darren Shaw had brought his team across that they were going for the strength side of things and we carried three props on the bench.

"But I think that's what won the game for us. Our line speed was fantastic, we put them under pressure at every minute of the game.

"Our push when we had the ball was fantastic, our kick pressure was fantastic. We've gone about our business with Rochdale like we asked them to do in training and we've got the result we deserve, I think."

Ratcliffe also praised the performance of match referee, Dave Merrick.

"I think he's had a fantastic game and that's not just because of the score.

"I think he's let the game flow. People don't come to watch the referee, they don't come to watch penalties. They come to watch a game of rugby.

"He could have pulled quite a lot to be honest on both sides but he's just got on with it and to be fair I think he's done a really good job."