Back on winning ways

[Its back to winning ways for the Rossy lads after a tough but decisive win away at Warrington.

Players in and players out for this game, Will Sharrat and Ringers back from their studies but JR and others missing from the previous weeks squad that played so well against West Park.

This game was never going to be an easy ride with Wire creeping up over us in the tables over the past few weeks and with a good depth of squad to call upon especially from the RL ranks which was plain to see on Sunday.

A lovely day for rugby and in pleasant settings the Dale really set the mark in the first half and to be honest should have been out of sight by half time. However a succession of missed chances and half chances through a lack of concentration and some pretty dour decision making which got worse in the second half ensured that Wire were just never quite out of the woods.

Warrington started the stronger by putting Dale on the back foot after an error at the kick off. A short period of pressure in our 22 was soaked up and we found our legs again after the long journey of …ooh about 53 minutes or so.

Bridgey was the first on the board, after piling some pressure on the attack just within their half he forced an error and claimed an interception. With the speed of a thousand gazelles which I hasten to add he got handed through his genes he made a diagonal for the line and ensured chasing defenders couldn’t catch him. No knackered tripping over boot laces this week.

Dale started to dominate the game further and superb running from Cloughy with some neat distribution by Will S kept punching holes in the Wire defence. R.L. tackling discipline held the day for them, any lesser team and Cloughy would have had a hat trick on the 20 minute mark.
It wasn’t long before the dominance paid off again ,Will S made the break and gave a sweet off load to the supporting Leo who with work still to do outwitted the defence and scored the try. Jake popped over the goal and it looked all on.

However despite our continued dominance we made several unforced errors and just could not get over again until the ever tremendous Danny Rylance ( Rampaging Bull of the wild wet moors) capitalised on some great forward work and drove over from close range giving Wire no chance to stop him.

Jake popped the goal again.

Half time came and went. Will N was still learning astronomy on the bench after his early knock but the stars he saw you would never see through a telescope. RIP Patrick Moore.

The second half was rather mundane from our point of view but showed what Warrington can do if their opponents take their eye off the ball. To be honest it made more of a contest of it but the frustration from the side lines ( coaches, subs , parents and Will N’s supernova) was a bit much particularly when Wire scored a messy try from our point of view to bring the score back within reach for them.

Okay they didn’t have it all their way and we knuckled back down in stages but again the decision making and final play just wasn’t quite what we wanted.

Will S finally made it safe after a great solo effort from 22 or so out with Jake popping the extras.

A penalty goal finalised proceedings for the day.

The final whistle eventually went with a score line of 29-8.

A big shout out to our two props Woody and Danny ( Rampaging Bull of the wild wet moors) who totally dominated the front of the scrums. The ref even had to award sympathy penalties on the grounds of the control and dominance they had over the opponents

Obviously Will S makes a big influence on the games he plays and if only .... for all the games we have lost.

Despite Billy Whizz not having perhaps the best of handling days today both he and Cloughy are forming a very good centre partnership and the tackling that these two are getting through is worthy of admission money alone. In fact its a big round of applause all round in the tackling department because apart form the try and may be one or two runs we were excellent in that department today.

A win lads, a great win and if anybody gave us that score line before hand we would have taken it hands down. But oh how much better and sweeter it could of been.

Not to worry its only me being picky. A good win, a great effort and hopefully very enjoyable from your side as well.So well done Dale

Its Rochdale next Sunday. We will be up for that.