A Tough outing Taking on Tarleton

As kick off approached out came the sunshine which is quite a change given the number of matches cancelled recently due to the rain.

We had 12 lads turn up for the match against an unknown (for us) opposition in Tarleton. The team sheet was a mix of keeping players in positions in which they have played before and moving some lads into new position's. Through the year this will continue as a way of developing the players skills and understanding of the game. Today's hero's (the lads playing new positions) were Callum at Scrum Half, Ollie at Fly Half, Ryan at Full Back and Michael in the Second Row.

The full team included :

Callum, Ollie, Ryan, Jack, Luke, Michael, Vinny, Camron, Ieuan, Sam, Harry & Jason.

The match consisted of 4 ten minute periods and the scores were 1-1 : 0-1 : 0-3 : 1-0 resulting in a win for Tarleton at 2-5. The scorers for Rossendale were Jack and Ollie. Ollie's try came from a string of perfect passes which saw Ollie arriving on the ball at speed and running at the spaces between the faces and over the line he went. Jack's try was just as committed but was more route one and woe betide anyone who got in his way or tried to tackle him. The last time I heard him talk about the try at the bar after the match he had shaken off 113 tackles and covered 400 yards.

All of the lads played well today and bought some of the skills from training into the match (we still need to pass wide more quickly and deeper), but the stand out and indeed MoTM was Callum who took on the Scrum Half role. Having not played in that role before he was a little nervous and yet when talking about the role before the match he clearly knew what was needed. What was amazing to see was how he grew in confidence with each ten minute period and this is why he got MoTM.

Equally as good was the teams 4th quarter performance. Why? Well, by the end of the 3rd quarter the lads were 1-4 down and had just endured a 0-3 3rd quarter. But once they had reflected on all the great things they were doing they got to their feet with a new found energy and went on to win the 4th quarter 1-0. That shows tremendous strength of character and the lads should be proud.