Rochdale Swarm win the cup

Rochdale Swarm win the cup

The Rochdale Swarm brought the curtain down on a hugely enjoyable season in the best possible way by being crowned champions in the Supporters Direct Challenge Cup.

The team travelled over to the tournament at Huddersfield in buoyant mood despite being without several regulars due to holiday and work commitments.

The Swarms opening fixture was against the Widnes based, the Mersey Vikings.

The Swarm got off to a good start with an early score, but the Mersey Vikings came back strongly exchanging scores and they eventually took the lead, but with the introduction of Dougie McEndoo the Swarm steadied the ship to go in at half time drawing 4-4.

The second half saw the Rochdale outfit take control of the game with Matty Fallows and John Shelmedine causing the opposition no end of problems in attack and David Mansfield in defence.

In the second fixture the Swarm came up against Tag League rivals Wakefield. In a classic encounter the Swarm held on to win 11-10 after again going behind in the first half, with special mention to Aunt and Niece combo Maria and Emily Wynn who had to play both full games back to back due to the lack of female substitutes in the Swarm ranks.

The two victories meant that the Swarm had topped their group and came up against "Trust in Widnes", the team they had lost to in the corresponding final last year.

The final followed the route of the previous games with the Swarm falling behind to some early scores despite the best efforts of Adam Bates and Dylan O`Shea.
Half Time saw the Swarm behind 4-3 to the Widnes team.

Straight from the restart though the Swarm took control of the game with a planned move which saw the Swarm first move the ball to the right and then Mark Wynn on an arcing run use Brian Ashton as a decoy before a long ball to John Shelmedine who out paced the cover to score.

The Swarm were then on the front foot and through constant pressure Matty Fallows was able to dance through to take the lead. The Swarm then played good attacking rugby and the introduction of Ste Mason brought a steadying influence.
With a minute to go the Swarm sealed the win when Adam Bates crossed for the decider giving a final score of 6-4 to the Rochdale side.

The Supporters Direct Challenge Cup was presented to the Swarm by the Supporters Direct Development Officer, Laura Harrison at the post festival presentation, all in all a great day for the Swarm.