To scrum or not to scrum

It has been nearly 3 months since the lads last played a game of rugby and probably over a month since they saw a grass pitch. Yet for those who saw the match you wouldn't have known it had been 3 months since they last played, they were all truly awesome.

The Bury are known to be a solid and well organised side and they played that role brilliantly today. At each set piece their lads knew where they needed to be and for each re-start they had a plan. Wide that said, the Rossendale player's matched them right across the field and in every aspect of the game.

The first ten : 0-0 : From the kick off the lads had an enthusiasm and determination about them. This was emphasised perfectly with Jason's solid and repeated tackling. The other stand out player with regards tackling was Harry who has only joined us recently. The solid tackles quickly led to knock on's and forward passes which resulted in a fair few scrums for Rossendale. The lads had been told to follow the RFU rules on the first 5 make the scrum and the 6th is the scrum half. Over the course of the match this started to be the case which bodes well for the future and the lads knowledge of the game. From each scrum our lads tucked the ball under their arm and ran straight at the Bury players, no fear, no slowing down and a focus only for driving forward. Jack, Ollie and Vinney led the way with the number of yards made by running straight at Bury. The score truly reflected the effort and determination of the lads in the first 10 minutes.

The second ten : 0-1 : After the first 10 minute period the lads themselves highlighted to the coaches where they needed to focus in the next 10. Michael, Jack and Luke all picked up on the need to support the ball runner. Jack had led the lads well in the first 10 with his talking about positions and the second 10 continued where the first 10 left off. With each run in the second 10 the Rossendale players were closer to one another when attacking and as such had the support to keep possession. Vinney made a tremendous run and almost seemed to make a point of running right at Bury's biggest lad. Seconds later Vinney was still running but leaving a trail of players on the floor behind him. Again just like the first 10 the likes of Ryan, Callum and Camron were pushing bury off the ball at the breakdown and giving Rossendale the best chance to keep or gain possession of the ball. Bury did get a try in the second half and to be fair it came after a sustained and bruising effort on the Rossendale line. Credit again to the Rossendale lads though, as they re-grouped, had a chat between themselves and came back at Bury with the next play.

The third ten : 1-3 : The legs were getting heavy at this point. Bury had subs but Rossendale just had the 12 they started with. Two of the three Bury tries came straight through the middle via a solid running prop which even a Welsh defense would struggle to stop. To counter this the Rossendale lads started to move the ball wider when they had it. A fantastic move with Luke, Ieuan and Harry saw a pass from scrum half Jamie played across the pitch from right to left in one flowing move. It did the job and Bury found themselves out of sorts and out of position. The move didn't quite get the try it deserved but showed how mixing up the forward drives and width changes a game. The Rossendale try came from a set move just 5 yards from the Bury line. Jack had run hard at the line and earnt Rossendale a penalty. Ollie gave the call and Jason drove through a plethora of Bury tackles to get over the line.

The forth ten : 0-1 : During this period the likes of Harry, Michael, Jason, Jamie and Ieuan started to orgainse a deep running line to take advantage of a quick ball from the scrum. Michael had stepped into the scrum half position and spotted the width and depth of the backs. We also saw Luke make the most heroic pair of tackles in the game as he stood up to the Bury running prop, bounced off, only to get back up and make the tackle. We saw Ollie pop the ball up from the floor which we hadn't done in training since November. We saw Ryan and Callum driving over the breakdown at every chance. We saw the inevitable one handed intercept by Ieuan, we saw it all.

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If today is a taster for things to come from these lads then we will be selling tickets for the next match.

Well done to everyone.

Team :

Callum
Camron
Harry
Ieuan (Co)
Jack (C)
Jamie
Jason (T)
Luke
Michael
Ollie
Ryan
Vinney