Southport U13s 30 - 0 Rossendale U13s

Rossendale U13s made the trek over to Southport to compete in the semi-final of the Blacksticks Blue Junior Challenge Plate competition and were looking to build on a series of recent wins to be one of the first junior sides from Rossendale to reach the finals.

However, Southport hadn't read the script, and proceeded to shatter Dale's dream with 4 tries in the first half, followed by 3 more in the second, pouncing on any error with ruthless attacks. Dale came close several times; a couple of line breaks by Mark Rutherford-Shaw; a 30 metre driving maul, finally being stopped in the Southport 22; some massive smashes through the defence by Rhys Tighe; but all were snuffed out by an organised home defence.

Whilst Southport fully deserved the victory, the scoreline is a harsh reflection of the game; the Dale lads were unlucky to end the game without a score. It was always going to be difficult with a couple of players missing forcing some lads to play out of position and the opposition bench providing what seemed like an endless supply of fresh legs. However, the lads did themselves proud and kept playing hard right to the final whistle.

The Man of the Match, awarded by the opposition coach, went to Rhys Tighe, for his attitude, work-rate and aggression on the field.

As usual, a big thank you to all the supporters who went over to Southport and gave the lads loads of noisy and positive encouragement, and to Garry for taking the photos :-)