Rossendale travelled to Lymm on a perfect day and with a fantastic pitch to play some fast open running rugby, against a Lymm side that look to play a quick game themselves. Earlier on in the season Dale played some of their best rugby against Lymm at home and came out comfortable winners. However, with Lymm looking for revenge this was always going to be a tough competitive encounter.

Dale started brightly with some sustained pressure in the Lymm half but with a early penalty chance missed Dale seemed to go in there shells and enabled Lymm to get on top and play some fast rugby and score two soft tries through there quick backs. Dale brought themselves back into the contest with a Bramhall penalty but were playing with no particular shape and making far too many handling errors. Lymm were playing with spark and were forcing Dale deep in their own half and increased the lead with a well taken penalty making the score 15-3. Lymm continued to attack from all areas of the field, and through soft Dale defence scored another fine try. At 20-3 down Dale were waiting for the half time whistle to regroup, however the forwards started working hard at the breakdown area and were beginning to put pressure on their counterparts forcing them on the back foot and eventually Paddy Pole powered over from short range. 20-8 half time.

Dale needed to score next and force themselves back into the game, however a mix up in the Dale 22 from the back three gave Lymm another chance to increase the lead and probably put the game out of reach. 25-8 up Lymm players and supporters were thinking they had done enough to win the game, but with time on Dale’s side and the character in the players Dale knew that we could turn things around.

Dale scored 20 unanswered points in a truly remarkable comeback that was lead again from the pack. Dale had finally started to make tackles on the gain line and win 50/50 balls, playing at pace and out of the contact area Lymm struggled to cope with the Dale game plan and were beginning to look like a very ordinary team. When Paddy Pole went over for his second try of the afternoon Dale were back in the game and were looking very strong. Dale were now playing in the right areas through some good tactical kicking and decision making and scored another try through more good work from the ever impressive Ian Marshall, conversion making the score 25-20 and very much game on. Lymm were now tiring and not really threatening the Dale line, and finally Dale were playing with patterns and more importantly enthusiasm and the will to win. More sustained pressure in the Lymm half forced Mark Elliner over for a bonus point after some great link work from the forwards and backs. 25-25 with the conversion missed.

With 3 minutes to go I think both teams were probably thinking that a draw is not that bad a result. With both teams now showing a little bit of nerves and some kicking tennis from the two sets of back three, no team wanted to make a mistake or give away a silly penalty. However, Dale did exactly that, the only positive was that to win the game they would have to kick it from the half way line. To be fair to Lymm if they kicked the penalty from that distance they deserved to win the game. Dale needed the penalty to fall short and bang the ball into touch for a draw. The kick never looked like going over and when Jamie Albinson caught the ball and set off on a jinking run from under his own posts there was only one thing on Dales mind, and it was not the draw. After some great ball retention and phase play Dale were soon deep in Lymm’s half and when the ref signalled for a penalty, captain Albinson pointed for posts and three points, with the kick sailing over Dale had pulled something special out of the bag for a great 25-28 win.

Team; Roger Dennison, Danny Harrison, Tom Albinson, Dave Wood, Nathan Settle, James Bramhall, Jamie Albinson, Paddy Pole, Andy Dauncey, Johan Goosen, Mark Elliner, Tim Fourie, Danny Greenhaulgh, Paul Keys, Ian Marshall, Subs, Leyton Taylor, Grant Eddlestone, Ali Harper