ROSSENDALE 87 KIRKBY LONSDALE 0

On what was a Family Fun Day for the whole club the weather, warm but overcast, and pitch were in perfect condition for some free rugby. Rossendale did not disappoint with latest signing the experienced Matt Lamprey bagging a hattrick as well as orchestrating most of the play around the field. Curtiss Strong also went in for three with Joe Burns and Jake Edge-Spedding both over for two.

Brad Cave was first on the score sheet on hand to finish off a drive from the scrum by Lamprey. Lamprey brought up the second, picking up at the back of an attacking scrum to power his way over, Lewis Allen slotting the conversion.

Two tries from Burns, the first a subtle dummy to go over wide out and his second again on the back of a pick-up by Lamprey.

Jordan Lord added the fifth converted by Allen with Edge-Spedding and George Peel with Allen tagging on the extras to close the half with the home side 41-0 ahead.

The second half became very much a procession with the Marl Pits outfit almost scoring at will.

Lamprey powered over for his second after picking up at the back of the scrum and shrugging off would be tacklers and brought up his hattrick shortly after again off the back of a scrum, the No8 leaving the field to rapturous applause from spectators

Swift hands across the line created the opportunity for Jack Reynolds, Strong went over twice in quick succession. Allen crossed for an easy score, Edge-Spedding added the fourteenth, before Strong grabbed his second attacking from broken play from inside his own ‘22’, Allen on target with three more conversions.

“We wanted a fast start and we got just that in under 5 minutes with Brad Cave scoring a try in the right corner after some fantastic handling” commented head coach, McGuigan, after the game. “It was downhill for Kirby Lonsdale from that point who had a very young and inexperienced side.”

“Our set piece was dominant; we played in the right areas and the lads were ruthless in attack scoring 41-0 going into half time,” McGuigan continued. “At the interval the message was simple, can we match the first half’s intensity and have a complete/ ruthless performance for our home fans and that exactly what the Stags managed to do.”

“Final Score was 87-0 and all in all a great performance and family day held at Marl Pits,” he concluded.

Next week, Rossendale have a much harder task away at Lymm. Looking forward to that game, the head coach stated
“Going into next week away at Lymm it will be a much tougher test. Lymm managed a good start to the season beating Northwich away from home 47-10. Knowing Andy Davis, the head coach, they will be fired up and confident that they can produce another win against the Stags. We think otherwise; confidence is high and we owe Lymm after last year’s close defeat away from home.”

Geoff Lightfoot