Rossendale wilt in the heat but it's just too late for Clitheroe

Clitheroe entertained the recently crowned league champions at Littlemoor on Saturday and after a reasonably close encounter on the opening day of the season, Rossendale look to have improved all season.

As expected ‘Dale started strongly with some very attacking play looking for early scores to settle them into the match. The Maroon & Gold were stoic in defence and held out the visitors for the opening 20 minutes with some massive tackling in the forwards by Cowgill, Nuttall and the returning from injury Chambermaid and in the backline by Peel, Bartle, Lafranceschina & Greenwood. With the tight 5 doing the often unseen bump and grind and the back row snaffling and slowing ball at the breakdown Rossendale were held out for the first quarter of the game.

Their breakthrough came when some slick handling led to space creation straight down the middle of the park and their hard running centre crashed through, with the try converted Rossendale went into the lead. Again they visitors attacked and again they were rewarded after a series of forward drives designed to smash their way down the park. After several driving rucks they were camped on the Clitheroe line, from a resulting scrum their lanky Number 8 picked up and drove over to score.

As the sun beat down on the players the Maroon & Gold were feeling the heat in more ways than one – 12 nil down at home to a team who have a reputation for showing no mercy. The Captain’s rallying call was answered and Clitheroe finished the half in the ascendancy, with Chambermaid leading the forward charge while Simon Cowgill practiced the fine arts of back row play and the back line moved forward with great purpose both in attack and defence – notably Peel, Dickinson, Greenwood and Lafranceschina. At the half time whistle Clitheroe still lagged behind but the closing 10 minutes of the first half gave the team confidence. With rolling subs allowed Danny Cowgill came on the pitch to play with his brother Simon in the back row and added more pace to the forwards.

In the opening 20 minutes of the second half although Rossendale never let up Clitheroe began to edge their way into the game with the aid of some barrelling runs from Proctor Graves and Dowson in the forwards. against the run of play Rossendale were again over the whitewash to put a 17 point advantage over the Littlemoor men, but that is where their scoring stopped. Clitheroe were spurred into attack after a slicing run from Greenwood on the wing who picked a fantastic line to scorch down the pitch and into the Rossendale 22, Chambermaid was on hand to provide the link to wingman Redfearn who gingerly made his way to the line to score. The squad were in the ascendancy now and charged back up the pitch from the re-start and with the puppet-master Watson orchestrating the game from scrum half the Maroon & Gold forged up the pitch and Redfearn was on hand again to finish a move which virtually the whole squad were involved in. With the conversion missed the final whistle went and both squad and supporters were left wishing there was another 10 minutes to play as Clitheroe would surely have put more points on the board and pressed Rossendale all the way, especially as many of the Rossendale team were wilting in the sunshine.

The squad played with great heart and passion and can be proud of the performance against strong opposition from a larger club. After much discussion and the strong performances of the whole squad – notably Peel, Chambermaid, Lafranceschina and Greenwood the vote for the home team Emporium Man of the Match was awarded to Simon Cowgill for a fantastic all round performance. Next Saturday the 1st XV entertain Bolton at Littlemoor – kick off 3 pm