Hard fought war of attrition

First game back......, and what a game to start back with!

A very strong pair of teams was fielded by Rochdale, whom played with vigour and passion and on the day, were the better team. Well done Rochdale and thanks for hosting us.

Rossendale fielded 12 and we started out with a decent display as a few opening opportunities allowed for Rhys and Ethan to break clear through the lines and make significant yards on the pitch, resulting in a first try for Rossendale, by the formerly retired player Ethan Fourie. The game and opposition stepped up a notch soon after the try and pretty much a stride for stride battle commenced in the middle of the field. Not attractive rugby but a pretty level exchange of opportunities and yards lost and gained, sadly in this exchange we lost our star sprinter to a nasty tackle so had to dig in to the subs early game..., soon after as a further result of a physical game a couple of players had to take a well-earned breather on the side lines, so our reserves were used and exhausted in the first game with 45 more minutes of games to play.

Rochdale went to press their advantage and in all four games were a handful of tries ahead of our boys, by no means a walk over, but a very good, confident, skilled display by the Rochdale team.

The Rossendale team and all credit, to every player Sunday, really battled hard both with the opposition and with the conditions.., wet and muddy and first day, and game, back. Well done all and some fantastic individual performances in what was, ultimately, just not our day.

Tough break for the Rossendale players, but a game on which to learn and build upon as a team.