Rossendale 19 - 14 Altrincham Kersal

Rossendale 19 – 14 Altrincham Kersal

Dale Bludgeon Kers to seal playoff spot

On a glorious afternoon at Meadowhead, Rossendale ground out a win against Altrincham Kersal to secure their second successive playoff.

The game was far from the flowing, free running rugby that saw off Northwich last weekend but Rossendale showed plenty of guts and real character to end Kersals’ promotion hopes whilst “sealing the deal” for themselves.

Dale made their 1st mistake almost straight from the kick off, giving Kersal an easy penalty for a 3pt lead after just seconds of the game. 0 – 3
But then got down to business, recycling ball and attacking hard into the visitors 22. Inevitably it wasn’t long before Dale were awarded a penalty of their own, but the usually metronomic Stirrup failed to convert . Rossendale collected the restart however, and continued their assault on Kersal. Moments later they received another penalty following more interference at the ruck, this time Stirrup was on target and Kersals’ early lead was gone. 3 – 3
Again the visitors restarted, again Dale collected and attacked – testing the Altrincham defence with the powerful running of Collins and Mackenzie, and the pace and guile of captain Bramhalls ¾ line (McCabe, Harper, Dennison, Settle and Harrison) – but Kersal showed their mettle and kept Dale at bay for fully 15mins until Pole took the direct route, following some excellent recycling close to Altrinchams line, to crash through the remnants of the defence to score. 8 – 3
Again Stirrup hit his mark. 10 – 3
To their credit the visitors raised themselves to the challenge from the kick off and fought their way back into the match scoring a penalty following more Dale transgressions at the ruck. 10 – 6
Dale replied with another Stirrup “nudge” soon after though following some fierce midfield encounters. 13 – 6
Things looked to be going Rossendales way, as Kersal looked nervous with the ball. But one loose pass was all they required, and when Stirrup and Bramhall failed to connect the visitors pounced and Dale were forced into desperate defence. This didn’t stem the Altrincham tide and they scored an unconverted try to keep their season alive. 13 – 11

HT 13 – 11

The second half became a war of attrition with both sides looking nervous but another Stirrup penalty tantalisingly stretched Dales lead back to 5pts. 16 – 11

But Kersal kept coming and under the cosh again Dale transgressed the laws once too often, MacKenzie going to the sin bin after being penalised for interfering in his own 22. The visitors eagerly took the 3points and Dale were down to 14 men. 16 – 14
The loss of their flanker told as Altrincham took their numerical advantage and pushed hard at Rossendale, and more desperate defending resulted in a 5 metre scrum to Kersal. But the 7 man Dale pack dug deep and conceded not an inch as the visitors went for “the pushover”, and as Kersal moved the ball away from the static scrum McCabe pounced on the ball as the visitors managed to spill yet more passes in the midfield. Dale were back on the front foot, Harrison and Ellinor both making surges into the Kersal defence but Dale could not finish and had to settle for another Stirrup 3 pointer. 19 – 14
With MacKenzie back on Dale were back in the driving seat and kept the visitors pinned in their own half as the game ticked away and a great contest came to a close. As the whistle blew for full time Kersal’s players collapsed having given their all and come away with naught, Dale however were jubilant – securing their playoff slot with a gritty win.

“Quote MJB”
“Even without the direct running of coach Wood we proved we can produce the big match rugby that North 1 demands, all the players gave everything they could. This is an historic event, securing the playoff(vs Crossleyans) for 2 years running is testament to the efforts of all involved, but we still have 2 games left and are looking to finish the league strongly and build towards the promotion playoff.”

Dale face Rochdale on Wednesday 15/04/09 1830 kick off