Tarleton 47-5 Rossendale

With a combination of school holidays, injuries and Lancashire County representations, Rossendale travelled to Tarleton with only 14 players so had to play one man down for the whole game. With extra player, Tarleton were always going to have the upper hand, but that didn't stop the Rossendale lads giving it a good effort. Tarleton were on the scoreboard fairly quickly after an attack managed to slip through a tackle to score. The next ten minutes or so were fairly even, with both teams gaining possession, making attacks but being thwarted by strong defence, until the home side managed to score an unconverted try from a scrum. As the end of the half approach, Rossendale were awarded a penalty in their own half, and a long kick to touch from Will Walmsley put them into the opposition twenty two. From the resulting lineout, Dale started a series of phase driven by Hadley Newell, then Dominic Martin and finally Cole Lanigan, who drove his way down the narrow side to score. Tarleton then went on to score a converted try with the final play to end the first half Tarleton 19-5 Rossendale.

The second half started much the same way as the first, with Tarleton slipping a tackle in the first couple of minutes and going through to score. By now. Tarleton's extra man and the ability to rotate the substitutes was taking it's toll on the Rossendale lads as they tired. This gave the home side the opportunity to start stretching their lead with 3 more converted tries and end the game Tarleton 47-5 Rossendale.

It was still a plucky effort to put up a fight that was stronger than the scores suggests with only 14 players. All of the team stood up proudly and put in 100%, which made the selection of Man of the Match difficult, but it was awarded to Max Lyth, primarily for some huge, important tackles on Tarleton's strong runners.