Rossendale Under 12’s Make a massive improvement.

Rossendale Under 12’s Make a massive improvement.
Young Stags take Hard work at training into Match Day and take Blackburn to task.

On a cold wet Rossendale morning the eagerly awaited first game under the new coaching set up. The lads have put in some real hard work over the last few weeks. Following some coaching with First XV Players Danny Collins & George Peel the new temporary coaching set up of Iain McGrath, Ian Jones and Simon Entwistle have worked the lads really hard on being really positive in everything we do and to play with a smile on their faces.
The Game started and Rossendale were to receive the kick off, the ball was fielded by George Mills who made off up field with the ball and after a procession of quick ruck ball was passed through the hands until Sam Dutton decided it was time to take the ball across the line to score.
New Captain for the rest of the season Alfie Sumner stood up and cool as ice slotted the conversion.
The Rossendale Lads at this point thought the game was one but Blackburn were about to show the Dale Lads that they too had come to play some rugby. Blackburn pushed hard and tried playing some rugby but were kept out by some ferocious tackling. The tackles were going in and in the end Dale turned the ball over and regained possession by Dom Coyne playing his first game for the club and the backs sent the ball wide allowing Lewis Wright to gain some space and use his power and speed to score in the corner. Once again Alfie Sumner added the extras.
It was Fourteen points to Nil at this point it was difficult to get the team to understand that the game was not won and there was still ten minutes until half time.
From the restart the ball was fielded well and Oliver Bunt and after some poor tackling for the first time in the game he broke clean through Blackburn’s defence to score with Alfie Brown again adding the extra’s.
Rossendale kept up the pressure from the restart at it was not long before they were knocking on the door of the Blackburn try line and again the ball went wide for Oliver Bunt to cross for his second which was again converted by Sumner.
So 28-0 at half time and the lads had never been in such a healthy position before and struggled to cope early in the second half with realism that the game was there‘s to lose and not Blackburns to win.
Blackburn played some decent rugby and were first on the score sheet for the second half making the score 28-7 which started to ask questions of the Rossendale side. It then got worse as Blackburn soon crossed for their second and the Lads heads started to drop.
At 28-14 and all to play for Blackburn were on top until the kick off was fielded By Finlay Mc Grath and powerefull play by Sam Dutton, Rory Taylor, Dom Coyne and Jack Moynihan released Harry Hollings who made serious yards with a powerful run managed to off load the ball to George Mills to score. This time Sumner was wide with his kick.
This score should have been enough to see Blackburn off at 32-14 but some weak tackling allowed to maintain pressure on the Dale side by score a converted try of their own.
This meant a nervous last ten minutes with the score poised at 32 -21 to the young stags team. This is part of the game where some players needed to stand up and be counted and one George Mills did he got a bit of a lucky break and went over to score his second of the game. Sumner was again back at his best with the boot adding the extras.
The Steadying influence of Charlie Farrow was added back from the bench to help win more ball at the scrum and lineout and from a scrappy bit of play saw Dom Coyne score his first try for the club again Sumner slotted the extras.
One little incident at the end of the game left two Dale lads needing Hospital attention. Glad to Hear both Jack Moynihan and Lewis Wright are both ok.
So Dale took the Honours and the Local Bragging rights from this game with a fine win 46-21.
It was great to see such an impressive performance from the team under the new coaching set up which is a sign of where this team could be in a years’ time.
Well Done to everyone from the Coaches.