Rossendale Senior Colts cause near medical emergency for coaching staff.

The squad was a little depleted going into this game with a number of our "big hitters" out through Lancashire training or injury / illness. Perhaps not the most ideal situation we should of faced given our higher league opposition and the fact it was a cup game.
We spoke about this in the changing rooms beforehand and put it to one side because when you look down the team sheet from whom we still had available it was a very strong squad. We asked the lads to go out with the same vigour that they finished the Huddersfield game in and merely make sure the other team knew they had been in a game. So no pressure there then !
The game started off with our usual fumbling and puddling about at the kick off which put us right onto the back foot. Park with their big strong forrads threw the lot at us but some resilient defence kept them at bay for a short period.
Things then went from bad to worse on the day with the loss of Mark for the rest of the game early doors and after Park barrelled over for their first try Josh was also unable to play any further part.
The amazing Bennnnnnnnyyyyy Whitehead pushed into the number 8 slot and after some great open rugby by Dale, Ben found himself picking up a loose ball in the centre of the field and as Paul once put it engaged the after burners to sprint home 40 yds to go under the sticks which Henry Wilby duly converted for us to go into the lead.
Now we started to match Park in most aspects and indeed looked the stronger outfit. Wayne was doing some tremendous running with the ball in hand causing all sorts of problems for them whilst Callum Pellings defence was awesome.
Our forwards even took control of the game and our scrum with the front row of Dom, Cole and Jakey won ball against the head with the seconds providing great support in the loose and winning the lineouts with ease.
Hadley and Benjay L worked tirelessly around the field.
But all this good hard work came to nought. It was a mixture of rushing things and making errors , some poor decision making and a little bit of naivety that allowed Park in at the corner to retake the lead.
Dale werent to be outdone yet though and some great work by the forwards nearly saw us push over with Ben W just having the ball stripped from his grasp as he stretched his way over. Finally our due diligence paid off and Henry Higgins scored in the far corner which allowed us to go into a 12-10 half time lead.
Playing down the slope at the turn around and it was nearly all Dale to open up with. It was yet again however our own errors that were the undoing, loose ball , poor passing options and generally some untidyness that lost us field position and allowed Park back up into our half.
Rossendale as a team however kept the faith and despite the error count continuing to rise maintained the pressure and a further try and conversion by the strong running of Wayne sneaked us into a 19-10 lead.
From the kick off then ....groan...yes you guessed it ..another error. Onto the back foot again. And yes ...groan ...you guessed it.. after a period of pressure during which i will say that we put up a heroic line defence..the big park forrads barged over for a further score.
Now our lads have really learnt something in the last few weeks and that is we do not give in and we do not go down easily. We had lads hurting all over the pitch and we had lads feeling the pinch of the night before and one or two of our lads were almost on all fours crawling around the pitch. But we never gave up. We piled the pressure on again and kept probing with our forwards ( Hadley take a bow) but with only 7 mins left on the clock Sedgley took an interception from around their 22 and their player went full belt up the field to score a try , head in my hands i thought what a sickening way to have ended the game. But wait , divine intervention when that man , the bionic man , Steve Austin the six million dollar man ...remember the music... der na ne ner ..... came out of nowhere and chased and caught the big Park lad with 5 yards to go and despite being pulled along still brought him down right on the line. Yes folks Steve Austin is our man Tom Unsworth who had really grown into the game with some strong running and tackling throughout but for me takes the man of the match award for saving this game and for one of the most amazing recovery tackles i have ever seen. NICE.
And so time pressed on. Our lads kept the pressure on and after further great running by Wayne, Henry Higgins received the ball and scarpered for the corner to give us the winning jerseys.
A brilliant effort and wonderful commitment from all those on duty today. Very proud of what you did.
To sing the praises of one or two though i wish to add that I did Ben Whitehead an injustice today by not mentioning him in the team talk after. Well i thought his game was fabulous today , not only his try but the way he conducted himself in defence and attack all over.
Henry Wilby , the ex captain ;) .. joking lol played superbly as well, getting stuck into everything, some great kicking out of hand and narrowly missed out on the MoM award. But must remember - Rule 1 : the coach is always right and rule 2 : if in doubt refer to rule 1 :)
All in all though chaps a very pleasing result and one which all our spectators enjoyed immensly.
A big thank you also to Wayne ( aka Kev !!! were did I get that from !) for running the line for the team today and also to our very own Nurse Gladys ( Amanda) for looking after the lads with her medical prowess.

Great stuff. Back to the grind and its training on Wednesday. Usual time and place in case some of you have forgotten when and where.
And i'm off for some more home brew...hic.. enjoy the feeling.