Rugby Union: Altrincham Kersal 43 - 28 Rochdale RUFC

Kersal, who have had a similar start to the season as Rochdale, came out winners in this fair paced game at Stelfox Avenue.

Rochdale made errors from the start and Kersal raced away to a 12-0 lead with only 15 minutes gone.

Rochdale failed to tackle on several occasions and gifted the ball to Kersal in the first two of their tries. The first after the referee judged that Rochdale had pulled a maul down and from the resulting penalty Kersal were on their way.

Kersal scored their second almost from the re-start as they did for their third try.

Rochdale needed to stem the tide and kept hold of the ball through a couple of phases.

Jon Mair received the ball and straight away sent it out wide where an unmarked Callum Duffin used his considerable pace to round the opposition and score Rochdale’s first try. Converted by Coldman.

A collapsed scrum had Kyle Parry receiving extensive treatment for a neck injury and that was the end of his game. Rob Ward replaced Parry.

Kersal were quickly back in charge when somewhat luckily the ball went straight to their centre who was free and in space and he walked the ball home. The conversion attempot missed.

Oli Coldman kicked a penalty for Rochdale.

The start of the second half Rochdale were in charge for a while with Kersal looking jittery.

The Rochdale supporters were thinking Rochdale were back in the match.

Tom Hindle and Jake Castree were working hard in the middle and the front row, led by Callaghan, kept the first ten minutes fairly even.

Coldman missed a penalty. Hindle and Castree combined to get another penalty for handling on the floor, Coldman uncharacteristically missing again.

Rochdale were applying good pressure on a tiring Kersal and superb handling after a ruck, with good support play from Townsend, saw Jimmy Flitcroft burst through two tackles and had another tackler holding onto him as he outstretched his arm to score the try of the game. Coldman failed with the conversion.

Townsend, ably supporting this time, passed to Callaghan who returned the ball and Townsend was caught just short of the line after a fine run.

Rochdale had all the pressure at this stage.

The ball spilled by Kersal came out to Travis Townsend who had the space to round the defender and score near the posts, he converted his own try and Rochdale were ahead.

This was the signal for Kersal to waken again, or that Rochdale had spent much energy getting back into the match.

Kersal ran in three more tries. The first of these was converted.

Coldman kicked a further penalty bringing Dale back to 29-28. Hearts in mouths the Rochdale supporters urged their team on, but they were spent.

Kersal went on a scoring spree to win the game by a comfortable margin.