Eccles 7-41 Rossendale

Rossendale visited Eccles in the first round of the Joe McDonough Lancashire Trophy and gave an excellent, all-round team performance to overpower their opponents and score seven tries. The visitor's stood strong as a team and allowed their rugby to do the talking in an exciting game where every player played their hearts out.

Despite a faltering and unenthusiastic warm-up, the Dale lads fired right from the kick-off and immediately showed their aggression and determination, with strong running and ferocious defence as both teams tried to gain the upper hand. Dale broke the deadlock when Matthew Derbyshire made a strong run down the right wing, before offloading to Jordan Fortune, who gave a long pass out to Jacob Taylor to run in to score down the left. The next try also came from Rossendale, as the ball came out of a scrum around half-way, and went through the hands of Oliver Molloy, Ciaran Campbell and Tom Unsworth before ending up in the hands of Jacob Taylor, allowing him to score his second. Eccles then spent about 10 minutes in Rossendale's half, battering the defence and getting closer to the try line. The Dale defence stood strong to repel the attacks and it was eventually snuffed out by Ben Ludlam stealing a ball and getting it to Joe Bedlow to exit the twenty-two. However, the long kick didn't find touch, instead bouncing just outside the home side's twenty-two, but the strong chase from Ciaran Campbell enabled him to collect the ball and pass to Jacob Taylor, enabling him to bag his hat-trick. As the first half drew towards a close, the ball was quickly collected in a Rossendale lineout and shipped across the back line to enable Oliver Molloy to sprint over for his first try, converted by Joe Bedlow and ending the half Eccles 0-22 Rossendale.

The half-time team talk from the Eccles coaching staff changed their game plan, with more of the play coming through the forwards, who had the edge on Dale in the scrum and made some excellent driving runs up field, and soon after the break got their reward with a converted try. Rossendale were undaunted though, and continued to play good quality rugby and soon got the scoreboard moving again with a well-executed set-piece lineout 10 metres from Eccles' goal line, where Cole Lanigan drove his way over to score, converted by Joe Bedlow. Dales next try was a counter-attack from their own in-goal area, as Tom Unsworth picked up a loose ball and sprinted around a number of tackles, He fed the ball to Callum Pelling who was galloping up in support, before passing the ball to Oliver Molloy who sprinted away to score his second try, again converted by Joe Bedlow. Dale's final try came from another counter-attack, this time started by Tom Unsworth in his own twenty-two, jinking around a couple of Eccles defenders before giving the ball to Jordan Fortune as he charged into Eccles' half. He drew the last defender and, with a perfectly timed pass, found Ciaran Campbell sprinting up in support and allowing him to cross the whitewash to score his try. With no further scores from either side, the game ended Eccles 7-41 Rossendale.

There were two Man of the Match awards; the first was awarded by the Eccles players and given to Jacob Taylor for his incisive attacking play, and the Dale coaches gave the other to Max Lyth for aggression and commitment playing out of position in the blindside flanker role. Next week sees Rossendale meet local rivals Preston Grasshoppers in the next phase of the Colts League season.