Rossendale U12s 7 – 33 Bolton U12s

The game started promisingly for the Dale lads as they took the kick-off and put Bolton under sustained pressure for the first five minutes, including a couple of scrums won against the head. But Bolton, with clean ball from their lineout, put a kick over the Rossendale defence and their quick winger pounced to score a try against the run of play, and subsequently scored the conversion. Dale fought back, and they were rewarded with a penalty five metres from the Bolton line. The forwards move straight from the training ground saw Harry Brown go over with the line with ball, to find the ball adjudged by the referee to have been held up. A few minutes later, another Bolton kick and chase saw them go over for their second try and with the conversion, the half ended 0 – 14.

With the half time team talks over, Bolton restarted the game with the kick-off which the Dale defence didn’t deal with adequately. Bolton quickly took possession and scored their first try of the second half, but missed the conversion. Two more converted tries from Bolton followed in quick succession to close out the game. Dale didn’t want to end the game without a score, and got their rewards with a well-worked forwards move ending with Jordan Fortune going in to score, with 3 Bolton defenders attached to him. PJ Butler converted, leaving the final score 7 – 33.

Rossendale Man of the Match was awarded to Tom Unsworth, for his terrier-like determination throughout the entire game.