Marple Senior Colts 36 - 12 Rossendale Senior Colts

After a couple of heavy defeats in the lead-up to Christmas, Rossendale Senior Colts were looking to start the New Year off with a bang when they visited Marple. The previous games between these teams had produced close encounters, but Dale had aspirations of stealing a win. For the first few minutes, it looked like they might pull it off, as they contested hard and played some mature rugby to keep pressure on Marple. However, a missed tackle allowed the home side to break through and they got on the scoreboard first. However the visitors were unbowed, and continued to test the Marple defence and were awarded a scrum soon afterwards on the edge of Marple's twenty-two. Dale's strong scrum shifted the ball quickly to the back and allowed a quick pass out to the backs. Max Lyth received the ball, drew in and then evaded the defence with a neat sidestep before passing to Henry Wilby, who had run an excellent line to slice open the Marple defence and score, and subsequently convert, Dale's first try. The first half continued as a very close affair, with both sides attacking and defending strongly. Dale had a few great moments, such as some neat interplay between Dominic Martin, Isaac Cornwall and finally Jacob Taylor to drive upfield about thirty metres and suck in the Marple defence, but they stayed firm and repelled the attacks. Then just before the break, Dale's defensive structure slipped, allowing Marple to overload the tight-hand side and sprint over to score, ending the first half Marple 12 - 7 Rossendale.

After some half-time reorganisation for both sides, Marple quickly gained the upper hand, and had added two tries to the scoreboard within the first ten minutes of the second half. Rossendale did not want to lie down though, and kept working hard to win and retain ball, and probe the Marple defence. One such run saw Callum Pelling made some ground before passing to Jacob Taylor who flew down the right wing. Unfortunately, he was too fast for the support players, so when he wa finally brought down about ten metres from the line, the Marple defence were able to steal the ball to snuff out the attack. There were also some periods of prolong pressure from Marple, where the Dale lads really had to dig deep on their own try line with some gutsy and combative defending to keep them out. However, eventually Marple managed to break down the defence and score again. At no point though did the Dale lads show any signs of giving up. Whenever they had the ball, they continued to try to make territory and break down the defence and were rewarded with a penalty just inside the Marple half after one of their defenders strayed offside at the ruck. A set piece move saw Rossendale's fly half make a lovely jinking run around several defenders before feeding Henry Wilby to sprint through for a well-finished try. Marple were able to add another converted to their score and the game eventually ended Marple 36-12 Rossendale.

The scoreline belies what was a close game, well contested with some strong running and fierce defence from both, played in an excellent spirit throughout. Rossendale's entire team gave 100% effort but seemed to suffer from a few too many mistakes to take the win. The Rossendale Man of the Match, selected by the Marple coaching staff was Isaac Cornwall.