It was one of those days when nothing seemed to come off and every mistake turned into a try at the other end. From a West point of view the game couldn’t have been summed up better than by Rossendale’s fourth score mid-way through the second half. With a big overlap Andrew Davies looked certain to score our second try but he lost the ball over the line, winger Anthony Bingham picked up and raced the length of the field to touch down at the other end. It really was that kind of afternoon.

Despite that, nothing should be taken away from Rossendale who finished their chances extremely well and in winger Bingham surely have one of the most dangerous runners in the league. With prolific try scorer Sam Lowthian on the other wing the visitors had quality on both flanks but it was Bingham who stole the show - his break set up the first try and he added two of his own in the second, the first an outstanding solo effort.

The visitors dominated the first half with our only real scoring chances a long range penalty effort from Stu Waites and a brief visit to the 22 after quarter of an hour which eventually resulted in Rossendale’s second try.

Steve Nutt missed a simple early penalty but when a loose pass cost us the ball on half-way with 10 minutes gone Bingham broke up the left wing, found support inside and eventually the ball worked it’s way to scrum-half Jamie Albinson who raced in for the try.

Our only real try scoring chance of the half came when Luke Watson broke into the 22 but his pass inside was deemed to be deliberately knocked on and we kicked the resulting penalty to the corner. Despite a couple of lunges for the line the ball went loose in mid-field and Rossendale countered with Nutt breaking away before feeding Lowthian to finish off the score.

Nutt added 3 penalties before the break for a 23-0 lead.

A brilliant individual try from Bingham stretched that lead 9 minutes into the second half - he received the ball 10 metres inside his own half from a scrum and evaded tackler after tackler before sprinting clear to score under the posts.

Scott Butcher pulled a try back for us on 52 minutes, the winger finishing very well after taking a pass that was well behind him, and 3 minutes later we should have doubled our lead only to see Bingham profiting from that dropped ball and scoring at the other end.

Now playing for pride and the outside chance of a four try bonus point we did have our best attacking opportunities of the match. Peter Youll went close twice on the left wing before Michael Hogan crashed over with 10 minutes to play.

Still needing two scores for the bonus point we continued pressing but it took until the final minute for Colin Cheslin to go over and despite a quick drop-goal conversion from Waites there was not enough time to add a fourth try.


West: C Cheslin, Butcher, Heckles, Watson, Youll, Waites, Painter, Pinchen, Rollins, Coates, Davies, Hogan, Myers, D Boatman, J Boatman.
Reps: A Dixon, Grazier

Tries: Butcher, Hogan, Cheslin
Con: Waites
YC: Heckles

Rossendale: Nutt, Lowthian, Bedlow, T Albinson, Bingham, Bramhall, J Albinson, Greenhalgh, Keys, Short, Greenwood, Goosen, Dauncey, Walker, Collins.
Reps: Marshall, Eddleston, Dennison

Tries:J Albinson, Lowthian, Bingham 2
Cons: Nutt 4
Pens: Nutt 3
YC: Greenwood

Referee: Tomas Bartram [Midlands]