Tarleton Senior Colts 20 - 7 Rossendale Senior Colts

It looks like the pressure of taking the top spot was too much for Dale as they squandered too many chances and made some basic errors and allowed Tarleton to take control of the game and the scoreboard. For the first fifteen minutes Rossendale were clearly the dominant side, with superior forward power and good quick ball across the backs. They managed to get the ball across the try line three times, but were simply unable to overcome the scrambling home side's defence to get the ball down and score. The visitors' pack was dominant, winning every scrum regardless of who had the put in, and making several long drives up field. Each time they got close to scoring though, some error brought the attack to an end. After this sustained pressure, it look like the flood gates would eventually open and Rossendale would run in a number of tries. However, Tarleton broke through completely against the run of play and sprinted almost three quarters of the length of the pitch to score, and shift the momentum to the home side's favour compounded by kicking a penalty after Rossendale transgressed within kicking range. The first half ended Tarleton 10-0 Rossendale.

Dale seemed to start the second half a bit more fired up and were again unable to ground the ball over the line. From the resulting five metre scrum, the ball whipped across the back line to allow Jacob Taylor to smash over to score, with Henry Wilby adding the extras. However, with the mistakes piling up, the discipline started to slip and Rossendale suffered from a number of decisions against them and the home side capitalised on them with another converted try and another penalty to end the game Tarleton 20-7 Rossendale. Man of the match went to Dominic Martin.

It was a difficult and frustrating game to watch. There can be no faulting the effort on display - the lads really worked their socks off all the way through, but allowed silly errors to throw it all away. We need to go away, lick our wounds, but learn from it, use Wednesday training to work on some of the weaker points we picked up and bounce back with a big win next week.