Rossendale Senior Colts 19-5 Broughton Park Senior Colts

Following the narrow defeat to league leaders Wigan, Rossendale faced Broughton Park with a welcome return to a number of the previous week’s absentees and Dale were able to field a strong side with a full complement of subs. The first half started with a penalty for a knock on and from that point, Broughton Park had a period of sustained pressure in the Rossy half. Some strong tackling from Dale, particularly from the returning Ciaran Campbell kept the visitors away from the try line, although the pressure finally told with the ball being moved across the backline and the Broughton Park wing scoring a try in the corner. With the conversation missed, the visitors had a 5 points to nil lead within the first 10 minutes.

From the restart Broughton Park knocked on, which set up a period of pressure for Rossendale with a cross-field kick from Joe Bedlow almost found winger Will Peel in space, but an unlucky bounce deflected the ball into touch. Rossendale continued to build through the phases, with Jordan Fortune and Mark Rutherford-Shaw making some strong runs before the ball being passed out wide but unfortunately, a dropped ball meant possession returned to the visitors. Tom Unsworth was seeing a lot of the ball and had a number of jinking runs through the Broughton Park midfield, with Rossendale camped in the visitors half for long periods. Good pressure on the visitors trying to run the ball out of their 22, resulted in them conceding a forward pass. From the resulting scrum, Isaac Cornwell picked the ball up from the back of the scrum, surging forward, moving the ball to Joe Bedlow who went passed a couple of Broughton tackles to release Oliver Molloy close to the line who went over under the posts, with Bedlow converting to give Rossendale the lead. Rossendale continued the pressure for the remainder of the half but were unable to add to the score.

The second half started as the first ended with sustained Dale pressure, Cole Lannigan taking the fight to the visitors as he had done the previous week. After the ball was turned over in the middle of the park, Bedlow kicked to the corner and from the resulting line out, the ball was fed to Morgan Cornell who went over to score a try. With the conversion missed, Rossy lead 12-5.

Tom Unsworth was seeing more of the ball and after another jinking run through the broughton midfield passed the ball through to Joe Bedlow, who again skipped passed a number of defenders allowing Isaac Cornwall to score the third try under the posts. With the kick being converted Rossy moved into a 19-5 lead.

Rossendale were able to use their substitutes to good effect after injuries to both Ciaran Campbell and Cole Lanigan. This saw a welcome return to Jeremy Darrell who made some telling contributions, with some good turnover ball. Although the visitors had only travelled with a 16 man squad they showed no signs of tiring and took the game to Rossendale in what was proving to be a physical but fair encounter. Dale continued to build pressure, with some more strong running from Mark Rutherford-Shaw and Jacob taylor but the visitors defence held firm and Dale could not trouble the score board again.

Overall this was a deserved win with many good performances, but Dale will feel that they should have added more points given their possession. Man of the match was Tom Unsworth who troubled the visitors defence all afternoon with his darting runs from full-back. Next week Dale face bottom of the table Fleetwood.