Bulldogs U15 - 2011/12 Vs Rochdale Cobras

The Bulldogs turned up today focussed on continuing their good recent form against a Rochdale team from the division above. Right from the off it was clear that this was going to be a keenly contested phyisical game, with the visitors looking to put the early pressure on the 'dogs, which resulted in an early try in the corner which went unconverted. To their credit, and as we have come to expect in recent weeks, the Bulldogs didn't let this phase them and continued with their patient rugby, building pressure and playing a much better brand of attacking rugby than the visitors. This soon paid off as Matt Dalton released the ever-impressive Eddie Ogden who drew the defence in and slipped a neat pass to Keir Dean to score for the second successive game, cleverly narrowing the angle to give Matt Dalton an easy conversion and subsequently giving the 'dogs the lead at 6-4. Tough, uncompromising defence was king for the rest of the half, and when presented with a penalty under the sticks Rochdale decided the only way to breach the stingy Burtonwood defence was to take the two and level the scores.

The second half kicked off in a similar vein with full-blooded commitment from both teams and on a couple of occasions threatened to boil over as the solid defences cancelled out the attacks before Rochdale finally broke through to score the next two tries with one conversion to give them a somewhat flattering 16-6 lead. The game was never safe though with the 'dogs a constant threat in attack despite a couple of injuries meaning some players where shuffled into unfamiliar positions, including a maiden stint at second row for Mikey Williams (!) before the match finally bubbled over into a bit of handbags. Predictably, the penalty was awarded against the 'dogs (presumably for Eddie Ogdens' bad impression of a windmill) from which Rochdale finally put the game beyond the Bulldogs with another four pointer, and although there was a swift response from the home side, with a try from Jack Harper following a tricky kick from Louie Morrissey, the final whistle went immediately following the conversion from Matt Dalton. Final score 12-20. 

All the boys should be proud of their performance today, we had powerful go-forward from our pack which allowed the halves to be creative and use the pace out wide to cause Rochdale trouble all afternoon, and as is now the norm, this was coupled to great effort and commitment in defence.

Spectators MOM was Eddie Ogden, Shaun Hogan and Craig Burke shared the Coaches MOM and Coaches Award was also shared by Andy Prescott and Jack Harper, it was just too difficult to pick one for each. Top Trainer went to Mikey Williams.

Next up Hindley away, and a chance to make up for the narrow defeat recently, bring it on!