First five minutes were great

The start of the game looked good over at Broughton Park, sadly we seemed persistent and consistent in bunching around breakdowns so as the game progressed Broughton found spaces to run through or got the ball out to the wings and again found themselves with open fields in front of them and the try line.

The score line wasn’t too disheartening I hope for the boys, 7-2 was not a bad outing. I must say the Ref did a good job to keep the guys moving on a cold day – I am sure we could all be critics but the Ref kept the game playing through and around incidents so in almost all cases the ball was played on with the advantage. IT was a friendly after all, and bitter cold to be resetting every few minutes.

First half, yes bunching and yes poor discipline in shape but some really spirited play, they did run through us a bit but Rossendale put up a strong central defence, our keen tacklers managed to disrupt play and there was a good few minutes where there was an almost stand-off with neither team managing to seize an opportunity and capitalise..., some panic passing and a little bit of circus skills missing kicks or passes or dropped balls but overall it was a nail biting period of the game.

Hats off to Hugo and Bailey for getting the ball over the try line in the first half, I think the spirit and confidence following the tries kept our head in the game and a shame there wasn’t just a couple more and there might have been an epic tussle on for the 2nd half.

Well done Mac, new player, very swift and good physicality going in to contact with the ball and nailing tackles straight on or in chase. Good effort given only 3rd session in.

Joey, Bailey Ethan putting in a good show slightly unfortunate with a few breaks to get their names on the score sheet but as always 100% effort and more and leading the team with solid displays of defence and ball carrying.

George Y and Tommy…., not sure if you boys had shredded wheat or full English for breakfast but a deserved good performance and a distinct step up from last couple of weeks. Keep it up, keep the confidence up and get stuck in as you have the capabilities, we just need to see it on the field more!

Fin Lucas and Oliver Fraser and Ethan T great support, Scrums are really strong for us well done, great effort on the day and if we were to try and build on this I would look at keeping the shape and clearing those rucks, if we’re going to bunch lets make sure we win or keep the ball every time.

Will – again tremendous few breaks there in the game using size and pace to gain us yards – well done and keep it up.

The players have all the component parts to make a really formidable outfit, putting this together consistently is hard in a game like rugby with action happening all around but we are making progress and bringing this team work in at times, whilst out on the pitch. Playing some lovely rugby boys well done.

Let’s look forward to the next game – Ruskin Park (Home) on December 16th. I imagine it’ll be another interesting encounter.

Try Scorers..., Bailey (1) Hugo (1) well done boys.