The game was full of good rugby with nine tries in all, four for Macclesfield and five for the East Lancashire club enough to keep the the sizable crowd entertained despite the attraction of the first round of the Six Nations.

Rossendale opened the scoring with a try from Matt Probert, the prop up in support of an initial break by James O’Rourke who set up George Peel who although tackled short managed to pop up the scoring pass to the oncoming Probert.

Determined to make a game of it Macclesfield brought the scores level with a try from Sam Brown converted by Charlie Attis.

With the Rossendale pack beginning to take control a penalty line out inside the home ‘22’ was driven over the line Jordan Lord claiming the honours. Both tries were converted by Lewis Allen to close the half with the visitors 7-14 ahead.

Rossendale opened the second half in lively fashion as straight from the restart the pack powered upfield to create the opportunity for Brad Cave avoiding some would-be tacklers to cross for the third.

Again Macclesfield hit back with a try from Harry Harding converted by Attiss but a break from the lively O’Rourke carried on by Matt Lamprey who put the supporting Allen in for the bonus score.

Macclesfield refused to concede and with tries from Harry Oliver and Attis who also slotted the conversion the home side were back to within two points.

It was now Rossendale’s turn to up the tempo in a final attempt to seal the win and again it was set up by Lamprey powering through from a line out to get Peel over for the fifth. All tries in the second half were converted by Allen for 100% on the day.

In the closing minutes Attis landed a penalty for the home side to give them a deserved two bonus points.
In the other games played Lymm move above Blackburn to top the table following a 29-14 win at home to Sandbach although they needed to overturn a 0-14 deficit going in at the interval to take the match and snatch a bonus point.

This coming Saturday the league is back to normal with Rossendale welcoming Blackburn to Marl Pits in an eagerly anticipated fixture which could have a baring the final outcome in the table.