Colne & Nelson U12s 35 – 28 Rossendale U12s

The weather remained kind as Rossendale U12s travelled to Colne & Nelson to play their first game of the season, where they narrowly missed out in a close and exciting game.

Colne & Nelson kicked off, and Rossendale came straight at them and applied the early pressure. However, the Colne and Nelson winger pounced on a loose ball and raced for three-quarters of the length of the pitch to score. Dale were undaunted by this and, after a period of sustained forwards pressure, Jordan Fortune drove over for Dale’s first try, converted successfully by PJ Butler. Colne & Nelson struck back with two more converted tries. Rossendale ended the half with a try from Max Lyth, again converted by PJ Butler to make the half-time score 21 – 14.

Dale kicked off the second half and quickly won a Colne & Nelson lineout ball and Niall Milligan drove over to open Dale’s account for the second half, followed by PJ Butler’s conversion. Colne & Nelson hit back with another breakaway try from their own 22, followed shortly by their fifth converted try. The Dale pack maintained their dominance in the scrums throughout, rarely losing a ball and winning a couple against the head and after Colne & Nelson were penalised for playing the ball on the ground, Isaac Cornwall drove forward and popped a neat offload to Tom Unsworth to score. PJ Butler converted to make the final score 35 -28.

The Man of the Match was awarded to Jordan Fortune, in his debut game for Rossendale U12s, for his aggression, impact in the tackles and endless work around the field. Well done Jordan!

We had a huge travelling support today, so a big thanks to all the parents that travelled to Colne today to watch the exciting game; I hope you enjoyed it, regardless of the result. It’s great to see the progress that the lads are making, and I hope that we can build on this when we take on Burnley next week.