Rossendale and Bunley U12s combined team – York Festival of Rugby

Rossendale and Bunley U12s combined team – York Festival of Rugby

Rossendale U12s team received a request to help out with players so that Burnley RUFC could enter the popular York Festival of Rugby. 5 willing volunteers from the squad were able to help out on the day:

Jason Wilkinson
Callum Roberts
Taylor Neilson
Camron Seldon
Oliver Whitehead

The day out entailed an early start, meeting at Burnley Rugby Club at 7:15 for the trip across the Pennines, not helped by the indirect route taken and one of the coaches braking down 3 times before the M62!

The coach finally arrived in York, which was bathed in glorious spring sunshine in contrast to the heavy snow experienced in Rossendale the night before.

First match of the day was against Hull Ionians. Obviously little was known about our opposition for the day, and the Rossendale boys didn’t know any of the Burnley boys, and vice-versa. It was going to be a challenging day for all! Also, the matches were played under ‘old’ rules, this involved 6 man scrums, line outs but no handing off strangely (pay attention Jason and Oli!).

The match went the way of Hull by 3 tries to nil, ‘Burnleydale’ (Christened by the travelling Rossendale Supporters Club) struggling with unfamiliarity and little or no preparation before the match.

Next up were the favourites for the tournament. According to one of the officials, Harrogate RUFC are the strongest club in the region, bringing two big squads to the festival. Burnleydale didn’t disgrace themselves against a well drilled team, giving their all until the final whistle, but the strength and organisation of the Harrogate team won through in the end with the final score 4 tries to nil.

The boys now had a two match break in which they could catch their breath and the coaches (Gary from Rossendale and Chris from Burnley) could try and put a bit of structure and organisation to the team. Scrums, line-outs and a simple penalty move (Usain left and right for those in the know!) were practised.

This was a much closer match, with neither team giving any quarter. Taylor, playing at a new position of Number 8, in fact all positions are new to ‘Taz’, this being only his 4th match, had a massive carry down the field with 3 opponents hanging off him before setting up a textbook ruck. Callum and Oli ran great support lines to guard him while the Burnley scrum half passed away. Jason was a rock at full back, catching the high ball and running it straight back at speed, crossing the whitewash once for a great try in the corner. Camron also managed to get on the score sheet in this match for a typical props try, driving over from close range to level the scores. An improvement over 2 defeats, this match was tied at full time 2 tries apiece.

Another 2-match break now to re-fuel and prepare for the final match against Goole. A quick run through of scrum, lineout and penalty moves, an eve-of-battle speech from Gary and the boys took to the field with an as yet unseen belief and sense of purpose.

Early in the match Jason crossed the line to dot down following a strong run from deep, leave the swallow dives to Chris Ashton in future! Shortly afterwards Goole levelled the scores, but this combined team of young Lancashire lads didn’t want to go home without a win. They dug deep and cheered on by the travelling support managed to get Jason in position to cross the line again and despite the Goole protests, touched down to take it to 2-1 with 30 seconds to go. Burnleydale had a lineout 5 metres from their own try line, hooker Callum was asked to make a safe throw to the front, get the ball away to scrum half and then kick it dead – match won. But no, Callum decided to give his coach a heart attack, threw it to the rear, the ball bobbled about OVER the try line, Goole and Burnleydale players scrambled for it before it was finally kicked to safety. Match won!

Played 4, lost 2, drew 1 and won 1. Not a bad return for a squad of 13 which meant no substitutes and one half of the squad not knowing the other half. Many thanks to Burnley for the invite, and many thanks to the boys and the parents for making the trip over to York.