Rossendale U14s 41 - 0 Colne & Nelson U14s

Rossendale played host to Colne & Nelson at Marl Pits on Sunday and came away with an impressive victory with seven tries whilst preventing the visitors from scoring.

The game started with Rossendale applying the pressure from the beginning and keeping play mainly in the Colne and Nelson half until a nasty injury saw a delay whilst the medical team dealt with the injured player. The delay seemed to take the edge off the Rossendale concentration and it turned into a scrappy affair for a while, with too many mistakes preventing any real continuity in their play. About half-way into the first half, Dale started to turn the game in their favour, with the forwards squeezing out Colne & Nelson in both the scrum and at the breakdown, to create space for the ball to be moved out through the backline and make significant inroads into the opponents territory. Mark Rutherford-Shaw was the first on the score sheet, with a pickup from the back of the scrum followed by a surging run at and through the Colne defence to score under the posts. With the momentum building, the Dale forwards were going through 3 or 4 phases to soak up the strong Colne & Nelson defence before moving the ball across the backs to shift the point of attack, until Ciaran Campbell sliced through the defence with a lovely change of direction and crossed the whitewash to score. With two conversions from James Willetts, the half ended Rossendale U14s 14-0 Colne & Nelson.

As the second half started, it was obvious that Rossendale's tails were up, as they kept applying the pressure on the visitors. Michael Brierley took the ball down the right wing, and kept driving and pushing the Colne and Nelson defenders back until he was eventually brought to ground in the visitors' twenty two. Unfortunately for the visitors, the referee spotted the defender handling the ball whilst lying on the ground and awarded a penalty to the hosts. James Willetts reacted quickly with a quick penalty and dived over the line to score before the defence had a chance to reorganise. James Willetts got his second try a few minutes later from a ruck in the middle of the field when he received a short pass and made a jinking run through the defence to score. At this point Colne & Nelson were on the ropes, but to their credit they rallied and started to apply a large amount of pressure onto Rossendale. Dale spent a few minutes on their own try line, with the large Colne & Nelson forwards trying to batter their way over the line, but the defence held firm with some notable work from Jordan Fortune, Sam Irving and Isaac Cornwall kept the attack at bay. Eventually, Dale were able to clear their lines and James Willetts bagged his hat-trick after chasing and collecting his own chip kick to go over to score. Rossendale's next try came after Hashim Khan had driven his way up the pitch, attracting a collection of defenders around him, then passing to Ben Whitehead who offloaded in contact to Mark Rutherford-Shaw to collect his second try, converted by James Willetts. Dale's final try came from a set-piece move from the lineout which quickly ended up in the hands of Tom Haigh as he sprinted round the Colne & Nelson defence to score. The game ended with a nervy couple of minutes with Colne and Nelson again pressurising Dale's line, and they eventually did cross the line but unfortunately couldn't hold on to the ball which bobbled loose in the last play of the game. The final score was Rossendale U14s 41-0 Colne & Nelso U14s.

Man of the Match went to Max Lyth some excellent work at scrum half.

I'm sure everyone will support me in sending their best wishes to Charlie Bishop, who dislocated his ankle and broke 2 bones in his leg early in the game today. We wish him a speedy recovery!