North 2 West 8th September 2007

Rochdale 20 v 11 Broughton Park

In good conditions 'Park started brightly and after 10 minutes outhalf Steve O'Connor chipped through but the kick was half stopped and Pete MacMahon picked the ball up and fed it out along the line for winger Owen Lucas to jink over in the corner. The conversion was missed. 0 - 5.

On 20 minutes 'Park had a good phase of play with many good drives and then from a scrum deep in the Rochdale half, scrum-half Steve Elliot broke away to be illegally stopped just before the line with a high tackle. The penalty was given for the high tackle why not a penalty try?

'Park were still pressuring Rochdale and on 24 mins got their reward when Rochdale again conceded a penalty which Ronan O'Brien put over to make the score 0 - 8.

There was no further score in the half but 'Park were looking in control.

'Park continued to pressure Rochdale who gave penalties away and had a player sin binned for tackling a 'Park player without being back 10 metres. Ronan slotted the penalty to make the score 0 - 11 after 10 minutes of the 2nd half.

With 'Park fading and Rochdale coming more into the game and retaining possession 'Park conceded a penalty for offside just outside the 'Park 22. The Rochdale outhalf put over the difficult kick to make the score 3 - 11.

Rochdale brought on a new outhalf half who started to run the game for Rochdale. He jinked over for a converted try making the score 10 - 11 and all to play for.

Errors started to creep into 'Park's game and 'Park's outhalf dropped a pass. Rochdale kicked for the corner and won the resulting lineout out. Rochdale drove a maul towards the 'Park line with a back row player breaking off to score a converted try between the posts and the corner flag making the score 17 - 11.

With 'Park giving away penalties and field position they could not get within range to score. Rochdale did put over one of the penalties making the final score 20 - 11.