New Year Spirit

For their first fixture of the New Year Rossendale arrived with a strong squad of 19 players so the coaches had to select virtually 2 separate teams for each of the 20 minute halves playing 10 a side.

The Rossendale lads, captained by Tyler Johnson won the toss and elected to kick off, the home side fielded well and charged down field benefitting slightly from the slope this half. Rossendale were a little slow initially and allowed Littleborough to gain easy ground to within 15ms of the try line, until Rossendale stiffened their defence and bundled the attackers into touch. Unfortunately, the visitors knocked on from the line out and Littleborough gained a scrum some 10ms out. The home side cleared out quickly form the scrum moving the ball along the back line out to their left wing. Rossendale defence were up quickly tackling hard but Littleborough were a little sharper at the ruck and won the ball, this time moving to their right, wrong footing their opponents defence to score their first try; duly converted.

Rossendale, undaunted, went on the offensive and pinned Littleborough into their own half from the kick off, both sides competing fiercely for the ball until Rossendale were awarded a scrum within striking distance of their opponents try line. Both packs were fairly evenly match on the day and on this occasion Rossendale scrum half Nathan Waddington picked up quickly at the feet of his second row. He hesitated for a moment and it seemed he would be enveloped by the Littleborough forwards but he made precious yards and slipped the ball to Nuri Stoner who powered forward. He was almost held up a metre short but soon gained support from Ieuan Dwyfor-Jones and Reece Howarth who forced him over the line to ground the ball. Rowan Hopkinson converted to level the scores mid way through the first half.

The remainder of the half offered opportunities for each side to run with the ball and Elliott Newell made a number of telling runs and both defences needed to be on their mettle to avoid conceding points. It was Littleborough who finally broke through moving the ball quickly and recycling effectively to finally break down the right wing and score in the corner to go seven points clear after the conversion at the close of the first half.

For the second half the Rossendale coach replaced all but Joe Bedlow who took over as captain in order to give the remainder of the squad a run out.

Littleborough once more started the sharper and quickly stretched their lead with a determined run and good movement of the ball to score a try and convert. The Rossendale lads fought back and soon gained valuable possession forcing Littleborough onto the back foot. Josh Beeken took over at scrum half and was quick to feed the ball out to his backs at every opportunity enabling Max Haworth,Sam Warwick, Oliver Leah and Joe Bedlow to break through on a number of occasions. Eventually, Joe Bedlow battled and dodged his way to within a few metres of the try line until he was brought down but Josh Beeken was on the loose ball in an instant and courageously dived over the line evading the grasping hands of the defence to ground the ball. Joe Bedlow converted.

Possession and territory was fairly evenly distributed for the remainder of the match and although the referee had to speak to the Littleborough coach to talk to some of his players against continued infringements at the ruck it was Littleborough who managed to exploit their opportunities, scoring once more, making the final score 28:14.
The coaches awarded Best Forward and best Back for each half and they were as follows:

Best Back 1st Half Elliott Newell
Best Forward 1st Half Nuri Stoner
Best Back 2nd Half Sam Warwick
Best Forward 2nd Half Oliver Leah

Overall, the Rossendale lads showed plenty of spirit and determination and they should console themselves that they will have greater success as we move further into the New Year.

A big thank you from both sets of coaches to Gwil for refereeing.