Two men in the sin bin within the first fifteen minutes proved
crucial as understrength Rossendale went down at home in their
final game of the season 14-22 to Wirral.

With both Leyton Taylor and Tom Earnshaw on the sidelines and
the unavailability of captain and play-maker Jamie Albinson the
visitors took full advantage and were 0-17 up at the interval
through tries from Paul Lewis, capitalising on a weakened scrum
ten metres out to go through a couple of phases before plunging
over the line, to be followed by Adam Sheldon on the back of
some neat play by Craig Harvey, the outside half also slotting
both conversions and adding a penalty for good measure.

Early in the second half Wirral went further ahead utilizing
turn over ball to get No8 Rob Pearl in wide out.

At last Rossendale came to life. Taylor picked up at the back
after a series of five metre scrums to cross close to the posts
with Jordan Lord going in also from a five metre scrum after a
series of penalties against Wirral had created good field
position. Both tries were converted by Steve Nutt.

There had been an outside chance of finishing fourth but with
Waterloo taking maximum points away at Cleckheaton Rossendale
remain in fifth spot.

In his programme notes club captain Jamie Albinson was upbeat
about the progress the squad had made despite an injury hit
opening half to the season.

"So we come to the end of yet another season and what a season
it has been," he stated. "It has been up and down right from
the start and certainly in the early part we were not at our
best in large part through injury and having to introduce too
many youngsters too soon. However we have ridden the storm and
finished strong which bodes well for next term.

We have introduced a number of youngsters through the season and
now that they are beginning to find their feet under the
guidance of the more senior players we have much to build on. We
have a good crop of youngsters at this club and hopefully we
will be able to bring some more of our colts through when we
begin again in September. I want to make it clear that we are
fundamentally a home grown club and it is our intention to give
as many of youngsters as possible a chance to play first team
rugby."

Geoff Lightfoot