BLACKBURN 7 ROSSENDALE 3

The weather was foul with driving rain and hailstones making any thought of open rugby clearly out of the question . It was forward dominated with the Blackburn pack tending to have the edge for much of the 80 minutes.

Yet neither side gave up but with defences on top it was difficult for to make much progress as handling errors and other mistakes became the order of the day.

Blackburn were 7-0 up at the interval through the penalty try after the referee had penalised Rossendale for coming in at the side as Blackburn drove a scrum penalty towards the line.

To be fair the visitors did try to come back and perhaps with a bit more patience they might have created an opportunity to open up the defence.

However in the second half pressure resulted in a penalty for Lewis Allen.

Rossendale have now played thirteen and won four but despite the defeat they did manage to take a losing bonus point which has moved them above Wirral into tenth place on games won.

The side now take a two week break before returning to action on 4th January at home to, by coincidence, Wirral which will be a crucial game for both clubs as they fight to keep clear of what could a very tight second half of the season as Ilkley apart the next five clubs have just ten points separating them.

Geoff Lightfoot