Rugby Union: Rochdale RUFC 0 - 3 Winnington Park

Sean Needham tries a break through - Rochdale RUFC

Not a game that the average spectator would wish to attend. Could be summed up as, a little bit of rain, penalty kicked, the end.

Rochdale failed to penetrate the Winnington Park defence the whole game, despie playing 75% of the game in the Winnington half of the pitch. The Winnington defence stood resolute, but they were ably assisted by Rochdale's wrong options, missed passes, poor handling and not keeping the ball.

Sean Needham managed to break the Winnington line twice, but he was soon overhauled, and support was found wanting.

Rochdale spurned a penalty kick at goal on 15 minutes and opted for the kick to touch, the resulting lineout was lost and was cleared by the Winnington backs, how Rochdale rued that decision.

Rochdale pressured the Winnington half for long periods but didn’t have that extra guile to score.

Winnington came to Moorgate and stuck to their plan. They were not overly ambitious and defended well. They were unbeaten in a season and a half of rugby until last week, when beaten by in-form side Bowdon. They kicked their chances at goal and the telling blow fell when their penalty went in off the post, the only bit of good luck for either team that day.

When Rochdale did have the ball and looked to make a break they failed to hold onto the ball and gave silly passes instead of taking the ball to ground, and retaining possession.

A lot of effort was expended by both sides, but no tries were even looking likely.

Travis Townsend came off unscathed after dangerous play on him, which saw the game's only yellow card awarded to the Winnington centre Johnson. Even the following ten minutes of Winnington being a man down, Rochdale still did not look like scoring.

Rochdale have another tough fixture next week away at Glossop.