Swarm end season with narrow defeat

The Rochdale Swarm brought the curtain down on their inaugural season with a special exhibition match against a combined Leeds and Halifax side.

The match was played at the Chris Moyles Stadium, Featherstone as part of the Tag Merit Leagues end of season festival.

The Swarm started the stronger of the sides with evergreen Craig Nagy scoring from the kick off, reacting quickest to a loose ball and out pacing the cover to score out wide.

The game settled into an arm wrestle with both defences working well. The deadlock was broken when the Leeds/Halifax side ran in a couple of unanswered tries.

The Swarm responded with the try of the game when superb inter-passing saw Ramsbottom and Cockayne create the space for Mark Wynn to slice through to score under the posts.

The Swarm switched off defensively a little and allowed three scores to be chalked up against them, but as ever the Swarm rallied and played some superb Rugby with Mason and Ashton working hard with gave Dave Tyson the space to score the final try of the afternoon.

All in all a good display from the Rochdale side against a team drawn from the best players of two of its rival clubs.
After the game officials from The RFL congratulated the Swarm on their performance and sportsmanship, which had been lacking in other fixtures played that day.

The Swarm are continuing Sunday morning training in the off season on Firgrove, Milnrow. Training will now start at 11.15am to avoid clashing with the World Cup matches and on Wednesday nights Touch Rugby over in Huddersfield.

The off season will also allow the Swarm to plan for next summer's International Mixed Tag Rugby Festival they will be hosting. The Swarm have already had discussions with the RFL`s Tag Development team who have offered support and assistance with the event.

It is hoped to attract teams representing Ireland, Wales, Fiji, and South Asia alongside club sides from England as well as guest teams drawn from different bodies and organisations.