Hail, Snow, Rain... and loads of mud.

Conditions couldn’t have been worse as the Rossendale U9s hosted Ashton-under-Lyne U9s on ‘the duck pond’. It started out wet under foot, and with flurries of rain, hail and snow, it just got worse.

Ashton opened the scoring with a try after a couple of minutes, but Henry Wilby struck back instantly to level the score. But this was the last score of the game for Rossendale - Ashton wanted the win and showed it with real commitment, good running and tackling that kept Rossendale under the cosh. There were a few good individual runs by Tom Unsworth, Lucian Costello and Joe Butterworth and Henry kept up a spirited defence with a number of last-ditch tackles to prevent the score being even higher.

Rossendale went in at half-time 5-30 down.

It seemed the mud sapped the energy out of the Rossendale lads as tackles were missed and balls turned over allowing Ashton to keep the pressure on with several more tries.

Final score 5 – 45.

A special mention to Rossendale Man of the match, Isaac Cornwall (who had to dash straight after the game because of the 13:15 kick off at Edgeley Park) who kept up the pressure with some great driving runs through the Ashton defence.