A very hard and demanding game of rugby with neither side giving any quarter. Rossendale Seconds and Blackburn came head to head at Marl Pits on Saturday with a lot to play for as a win for either of the teams crowned them as league Champions . It was Blackburn who came out of the blocks firing first however and soon took an 8-0 lead. Rossendale tried to claw their way back into the game but a lot of their chances they created went begging when some poor handling or some mischievous decision making let them down. If it sounds bad it wasn't , it was just disappointing that we let some good chances go astray.
There were some good moves through that first half . Remy had a great run up the far side but wasn't able to find the support to have the run finished off and George Lowthion made a tremendous break down the nearside only to have his effort thwarted by a cruel egotistical official who had skilfully danced over a Blackburn defender left in Georges wake before merrily waving his flag as George allegedly stepped into touch thanks to the effort of the Blackburn fullback. Sadly his white stick was snapped in the process and some of the fervent partisan home crowd ran off with his Labrador . The linesman would appreciate somebody er anybody from the club to actually talk to him now as he feels very lonely.
Anyway Rossendale did manage to get points on the board before the half time hooter went . It came from a Matt Hindley penalty . It was 8-3 to Blackburn at the turnaround. Once again for the second week running we managed to stem the tidal wave of the opposition with some very strong defense and indeed start to turn the screw in our favour.
Dale had the advantage in the second half of the slope and confidence was abundant at the turn around .
Some early pressure from Dale resulted in Matthew Hindley finding a gap through the centre of the Blackburn defense and after an outrageous side step on the last defender put the ball down under the sticks and duly converted his own try to make it 10-8 for Rossendale. The game remained in the balance for a long period of the second half. A big clearing kick from the visitors put Rossendale under the cosh right back into their own 22. George Lowthion collected the ball and ran with gusto to the far side of the field , he linked with Oliver Molloy whose pace left Blackburn defenders grasping fresh air , Molloy put in a delightful weighted kick ahead just as the final cover tackler thwarted his touch hugging run ( good job the buffoon giving Specsavers a bad reputation wasn't running touch on that side ), a lovely bounce of the ball ensured Sam Fogg collected cleanly in the oppositions 22 and a contender for try of the season in any part of the land was duly scored. Matthew Hindley slotted over a difficult kick to give Dale a 17- 8 lead.
We saw some great aggression from Rossendales forwards as we pushed down towards Blackburns line. Tom Earnshaw really firing up. Whilst the big running of Sam Greenwood didn't make as many hard yards as the previous week he sapped the energy of the Blackburn tacklers and took some stopping.
Rossendale's defense was also a credit once again as it stood resolute and firm against a big resurgence from Burn . Somebody must of slipped a potion into Remy's half time brew as i've never seen him get into the faces of attackers like he did and made a succession of huge hits to nullify attack after attack and some body sworn they could hear "La Marseillaise" playing in the breeze .
Blackburn did eventually break down Dales defense and went over for a converted try to reduce the score line to two points late on in the game .
It was very much heart in the mouths stuff to the end. But we did it and the final score remained at 17-15. It was a cracking game and one befitting of a league decider but it was Rossendale who were duly crowned Championship winners much to the delight of a large vocal and supportive crowd .
There could be a mention of the special efforts of all the players for something they did on the day but it took a great team effort from everybody to pull through and that includes the lads on the bench who were not used due to the tight nature of the game but they were there for the team if needed . I will highlight the performance of one fellow though and I think it is worthy to do so. Myra the Mitherer . Normally playing at scrum half but will play anywhere and took the blind side flankers role on Saturday and did so magnificently . After he finished doing his best Gazza impression at the blowing of the final whistle we are now looking for skilled surgeons to remove his heart from his shirt sleeve and implant it back into his chest cavity.

Superb Rossendale . Well Done