Rossendale U14s 30 - 0 Ashton-under-Lyne U14s

Round 5 of the Blacksticks Lancashire Challenge saw Rossendale U14s play hosts to Ashton-under-Lyne, a side who were desperately looking for their first win of the competition. With the Rossendale lads in good form though, it was always going to be a tough ask for Ashton as they faced a tough day at the office.

Dale were out of the blocks immediately, when the kick-off was received by Ciaran Campbell and taken quickly up field, followed by 5 quick, clean phases of play before ending up back in the hands of Ciaran Campbell who finished the play with a try with barely a minute on the clock. The second Dale try followed shortly afterwards after a weaving run from Tom Haigh who went in under the posts to score. A few minutes of resolute Ashton defence followed, and they were rewarded with a turnover which turned into a penalty as Rossendale strayed offside at the ruck. The kick to touch found Ashton on a rare foray into Dale territory, but this was short-lived as Isaac Cornwall stole the ball at the lineout and made a surging drive back into the Ashton half, before offloading to Rhys Tighe who went over the whitewash for Dale's third try.

The next period of play saw Rossendale applying the pressure, but Ashton's defence held firm as they tackled strongly to bring down the home side's penetrating runs. The next score came from a Dale scrum on the half-way line, which was won cleanly and quickly fed to the James Willetts before a lovely switch to full back Callum Pelling who burst over the gain line. A well-timed pass back to James Willett saw him sprint the remaining 30 metres to score. The final try of the game came from a period of sustained pressure in the Ashton twenty two, when Ben Ludlam stole the ball from a loose throw at the Ashton lineout and drove into the final 5 metres before the Dale forwards got behind him to make sure he got over the line to end the half Rossendale 30 - 0 Ashton-under-Lyne.

Both sets of coaching staff agreed that ended the official game and that the second half would be played as a development game, so Rossendale made a few changes, rotating the stronger players either onto the bench or into unfamiliar positions to give a more even contest. So the second half was much closer, as Ashton showed great spirit to keep smashing Dale in the tackle and also threatened the Dale try line on several occasions, but the Dale defence was excellent and managed to maintain a clean sheet. For the record, there were further tries from Tom Haigh, Callum Pelling, Jordan Fortune, James Willetts and Michael Brierley, as well as 6 conversions from James Willetts and 2 from Ciaran Campbell.

Man of the match went to Jordan Fortune, who was excellent securing the ball at the breakdown and too much of a handful for the Ashton pack when going forwards.

Overall, it was a very pleasing performance with some good rugby on display as the lads showed maturity with great recycling of the ball as well as good distribution of the ball to exploit the pace of the back line. Well played lads! That's the last Sunday of this year, so the next game is 5th January away at Littleborough.