Rossendale U13s 7 – 36 Vale of Lune U13s

Rossendale U13s hosted Vale of Lune U13s at Marl Pits on Sunday and expected a tough game from the side who were runners up in last season’s Lancashire Cup competition, especially with a couple of notable Dale players being unavailable for the game. Whilst Vale we slightly depleted in numbers, they still showed that they were a team that was going to be tough to beat. Things started well for the visitors with their first try a few minutes into the game right under the posts and led to an easy conversion. Dale were under pressure both from some strong running from Vale and some errors from Dale and were pinned in their own 22 for much of the remainder of the first half. Fortunately, Vale of Lune were also making mistakes and should have scored several more tries had they not lost the ball in contact in the final few metres. With just one more converted try from Vale of Lune, the first half ended Dale 0 – 14 Vale of Lune.

Despite some strong words of encouragement at half time, the second half continued in a similar vein and Vale of Lune scored first with a converted try scored from a scrum in the Dale 22 and really started to apply the pressure. Dale’s only score came when full back Ciaran Campbell made a break from inside his own 22, offloaded in the tackle to Mark Rutherford-Shaw around the half-way line who sprinted away from the pursuing Vale of Lune defence to score. Peter-Jon Butler converted from a narrow angle. Vale of Lune went on to score 3 more unconverted tries to make the final score Dale 7 – 36 Vale of Lune. The score line could have been higher had it not been for several try-saving tackles from Ciaran Campell, Rhys Tighe and Mark Rutherford-Shaw. Man of the match went to Rhys Tighe for his effort and fearsome tackling all around the field today. Dale know that they need to improve for the visit of Manchester in next week’s first round of the Lancashire Cup competition.