Warrington U14s 31 - 5 Rossendale U14s

With a place in the last 8 of the prestigious Lancashire Cup at stake, Rossendale travelled to Warrington on what was a beautiful morning for rugby. Despite the recent appalling weather, the pitch was in a good condition and the promise of a close, entertaining game lay ahead.

During the first 10 minutes, Rossendale looked slightly the stronger team, particularly in the forwards, but were unable to capitalise as Warrington defended well with hard tackling. It was Warrington that broke the deadlock, putting the ball out through the hands to go around the scrambling Dale defence and allowing the Warrington left winger to go over to score. The remainder of the half continued to be a tough battle, with good defence on display from both sides. Rossendale's defence around the breakdown was working well and it looked like the game could go either way. Rossendale managed to cross the whitewash once, but the referee saw the ball knocked on, and Warrington were able to clear their lines from the resulting 5 metre scrum. Finally, on the stroke of half-time, Warrington went over again to score a converted try, making the half-time score Warrington 12-0 Rossendale.

Warrington came out in the second half with more desire than Rossendale, and fairly quickly were racking points on the board with two converted tries within the first 10 minutes of the half, followed by another with 10 minutes to go, as Rossendale started to appear dispirited and had to make a couple of changes forced through injuries. However, the Dale lads rallied, and increased the intensity to put the pressure onto Warrington who started to make a few errors. From a scrum around the half way line, Rhys Tighe picked up from the base and drove 20 metres into Wire territory, before offloading to Mark Rutherford-Shaw to make a few more metres. At the resulting breakdown, it looked like Dale had lost the ball, but Jordan Fortune managed to steal it back and batter his way through the defensive line to score. Unfortunately, the conversion was charged down and the game ended Warrington 31-5 Rossendale. Rossendale now progress into the last 8 of the Lancashire Plate competition with a quarter-final against Bolton.

There were many candidates for Rossendale's Man of the match, but it went to Mark Rutherford-Shaw for his impact all over the park.

At the end of the day, We were beaten by the better team - they wanted it more and just edged the competition in key areas. I thought their tackling today was fantastic, especially in the back-line, and wish them well as they progress into the cup - if the Warrington lad's play that well in the remaining games, they will be strong contenders. Thanks to the Warrington lads, coaches and referee for a warm welcome and a good game and look forward to meeting up with them again next season.

What pleased me most today was the spirit shown in the last 5 minutes to fight back, restore some pride and come away with a score. Well done lads, and let's look forward to a long run in the Plate competition :-)