Rossendale Vs Liverpool Collegiate U 15 – Lancs Cup

Rossendale Vs Liverpool Collegiate U 15 – Lancs Cup
Sunday 11th January 2015
Score 17 - 8

Tries:- Vineet, Conv:- Josh Abley, (pen)

Its Sunday, its cold and the boys in blue are playing away…a long long way away. I checked the map to see where today’s opponents were. I found Manchester and looked up into the hills, Rossendale was just next to a warning that says “here be Dragons and dry ski slopes.” After what seemed like an eternity we arrived at a very well set out club, with leisure centre, club house and pitches. The only downside being the soggy ground and chilling heat sapping wind whistling across the moor. The wind was so biting that our brave little soldiers were having a tough time keeping their hands from freezing up. Luckily tough old veteran John White gave them advice from the 1920s when he was a lad, “Cover your hands in mud and it feels like your wearing gloves”. A few of the braver, or was it stupider lads tried this, with no obvious improvement!

Although we had brought with us a decent squad we were missing all three scrum halves due to illness and Shy retiring No8 Kyle due to injury. This meant changes from the off, Alex Carden had to move from full back to scrum half, Jamie centre to Full back, Gary from wing to centre, Vineet from prop to No8 and utility forward Rhys ended up prop.

I don’t remember seeing Collegiate play Rossendale before, but I can now report that they were a large solid looking bunch with a number of six footers making up a strong looking forward pack.

Rossendale started the better and after some initial skirmishes, Collegiate were found wanting in the tackling department as one of the big ‘Dale lads brushed off two less than sturdy tackling attempts to score under the posts. That score and some technical pointers from the coaches encouraged the scousers to take it up the hill( the pitch had a pronounced incline), and an excellent forwards try saw captain Vineet pound his way through for 5 points. Rossendale scored another before Liverpool finished of the first half with some good attacking play that saw us awarded a penalty 35 metres out but with 0 seconds on the clock. Up strode Josh, (Jonny Wilko) Abley. The distance and angle were on the edge of his range, the biting wind was whistling from left to right across the pitch and the crowd were all shaking their heads…..A short two steps back and whack….straight through the middle….EXCELLENT! first half ended 12-8 to ‘Dale.
The second half saw a number of changes across the 30 minutes with a number of changes or personnel and positions. The most interesting of which saw centre/winger Lewis tried at 2nd row. I thought he made an excellent contribution in the line outs. Liverpool seemed to come out the sleepier, (or was it just colder), and ‘Dale definitely took it to us for 15 mins before scoring their third try. This seemed to be the kick up the jacksey Liverpool needed, the next 15 minutes saw us battering back the Rosendale team time after time and we spent the last 10 mins of the game camped in the ‘Dale 22. You know from the score that we didn’t quite make it, but we won virtually every scrum, pushed back the heavier pack and had a held up try disallowed. In my opinion Collegiate had the better but smaller pack, whereas the Rossendale team had a mighty defence. The whistle went and Collegiate picked up a losing bonus point. I heard a number of Rossendale parents saying that it was one of the best, most competitive games that they had seen all season.

The game was once again dominated by the forwards with dozens of rucks, scrums and lineouts. I guess that this reflects the quality of the opponents and playing conditions. Rhys, Kieran, Matty B and Kuba had particularly good games, having nearly two thirds of all carries between them. Josh Abley kicked well in difficult conditions, Josh Dempsey had a great impact when introduced in the 2nd half, Tackles were well spread around with Jamie and Kieran top tacklers. All in all a good performance, but ultimately beaten by Rossendale’s better defence.

A mention to Paul Peasey who got injured in warm up and went off to hospital with an injured ankle.

By Aitch