Rossendale Seconds entertained high flying Chester at Marl Pits last Saturday. In near baltic conditions with a stiff breeze affecting the game throughout Rossendale put in a monumental performance to take the spoils of the game.
Its fair to say that normally Chester, who are the frequent league runners up usually amass a good number of points up against us. That's no indictment to the Dale sides but Chester firsts play up in a higher tier of rugby and there is generally a bigger catchment area to attract players to the club.
Notwithstanding that Dale who had a number of regulars missing for the game through injury just put the effort in and it paid off well.
Dom Reece James opened the scoring for Dale in the 13th minute with a strong barge over the line after early trade offs between both sides were pretty even . Rossendale had some real dominance in the scrummaging but despite this it was Chester who struck back hard with two tries off their own one of which was converted to give themselves a half time lead of 12-5.
Rossendale where not fazed by the score , they knew they had to knuckle down for the next forty minutes and had the advantage now of the slope of the pitch and the breeze. Three minutes in to the second half Callum Whelan playing an unfamiliar role in the pack took possession of the ball from around ten yards out and danced his way around the tacklers to register a confidence boosting try for Dale.
As the game progressed Rossendale maintained the overall dominance in the game despite some heart stopping moments when Chester made some breaks through the backs and attacked the Rossendale line but the defence from Dale was good and held firm.
Rossendale continued to completely dominate the scrums, continually pushing the Chester pack onto the back foot and on several occasions winning the ball against the head.
Pretty soon that dominance started to pay off and Dale won a penalty in front of the sticks. At 12-10 down the safest and sensible option would of been to take the three points and thus the lead but that would of been to easy much to easy ! Dale elected to run the ball ( give your heads a wobble next time lads) but two phases later lost it through a handling error . Fortunately though the momentum had sufficiently swung towards the home side that it was only a matter of minutes before Rossendale again found their way towards the Chester line . Matt Lamprey who had moments before come up with a bullocking run took the ball again from 15 out and was unstoppable in his charge to the line. Their was no conversion again with the wind playing a decisive factor for the kickers from the angles.
On 65 minutes Rossendale found themselves awarded another penalty in front of the posts and this time sense prevailed after wobbling their heads! AJ Potgieter defying the gale and popping the ball neatly through the uprights to add a further three to the score.
That was the end of the scoring albeit Dale could count themselves unlucky to not add further points towards the end of the game but an 18 -12 win against Chester is a fantastic result any day and the lads certainly enjoyed the moment.
Big performances on the day from the front row of Rossendale who would of put up a match for the famous Pontypool front row in days of old and Max Boyce would of penned a song about them , Kieron Parker, Bobbi Smith and Nuri Stoner with Alex Isherwood stepping into the hooker role later in the game .Take a bow lads. George Peel and Joe Robertson- Maher both put in massive performances in attack and their defence was exceptional . Gabriel Maguire was a live wire at scrum half but the player of the match was awarded to AJ Potgieter. His award was epitomised by the try saving tackle he performed on a Chester player who'd made a clean break down the wing and was for all intense and purposes about to score in the corner when AJ tracked back and forced the error from him. In fact the whole team can take a bow. Such was the disruption from players being unavailable leaving lads playing out of position this was a tremendous effort and a very satisfying result.