Rossendale U13s 30 – 0 Aspull U13s

Rossendale U13s played host to Aspull in the quarter finals of the Blacksticks Blue Challenge Vase last Sunday, in what promised to be an interesting encounter. Dale were missing a couple of players from key positions, meaning some reorganisation was needed as the players lined up. Rossendale were out of the blocks immediately, when PJ Butler caught the kick-off, made progress up the field before passing out to Ben Ludlam, who drew his man before a quick pass right to Bradley Harris who turned on the afterburners around the half way line through to score Dale’s first points. However, Aspull quickly woke up and started to dominate in the forwards both in the scrum and at the breakdown, but were unable to break through the solid home defence. On the stroke of half time, after about 5 minutes with Dale camped on their own line, Rhys Tighe hit the Aspull attack hard, stole the ball in the Dale 22 and then ran the length of the field to score. PJ Butler converted to end the half Rossendale 12 – 0 Aspull.

The half time break gave the Dale coaching staff the chance to reorganise again, and instil some urgency into the team. The forwards came out in the second half at a much higher intensity, and started to not only retain the ball at the breakdown, but also win turnover ball. So with much more ball to play with, the opportunities to score began to appear, and Dale were ruthless when those chances came. This half saw 3 tries from Mark Rutherford-Shaw, a second from Rhys Tighe and the final try from Ciaran Campbell, two of which were converted by PJ Butler and ended the game at Rossendale U13s 30 – 0 Aspull U13s. The Man of the Match was awarded to Isaac Cornwall for a totally committed performance.