Senior Academy prove too strong for resilient Rochdale.

The Senior Academy squad and a healthy number of supporters made their way up to Rochdale for a Halbro Colts League game.

The foothills of the South Pennines along with a superb club house viewing gallery, provided a perfect backdrop to the wide expanse of the 1st team pitch; the lads looked sharp in the warm up and in good spirits.

From the kick off, Crewe competed strongly at the break down, leaving the official no option other than to award a penalty, which Logan lynch knocked over for the first points of the day. Following this promising start in attack, Crewe then showed they also had stoicism in defence holding the much larger Rochdale forwards at bay before turning the ball over in contact, kicking down field, gaining another Penalty, which the ever reliable Lynch added to the points total. 6 nil to Crewe after 10min.

The next phases of play saw Crewe in complete control, working their way down field with a lovely mix of forward power and the backs incisiveness, spotting the Rochdale winger slightly out of position, Crewe set a lovely weighted kick cross field, it was all going so well until the fickle bounce of a rugby ball caused it to land straight into the hands of Rochdale's left winger - the best part of 90 mtrs away from Crewe's try line - no real danger, how wrong we were, and how fast he was. What felt like 5 seconds later, he scored a brilliant solo try under the posts, which made adding the extras a formality: 7 - 6 to Rochdale!!

The score seemed to shock Crewe into life, some well worked plays gave Crewe good field position, Rochdale infringed again whilst under pressure and Lynch again added 3 from the tee. 7 - 9 after 20.

Crewe look now as they had found their feet; from kick off Toby Evans ran strongly, Jarrod Priestley-Bird supported Josh Sourbutts in maintaining possession, Tom Ryle found space behind the winger with a deft box kick for Lynch to run onto, collect and score under the posts, conversion made 7 - 16.

The match continued in a similar manner, Crewe's territory based game and fantastic kick chase constantly put Rochdale under pressure inside their own half, making it difficult for them the clear their lines, and on one such occasion a loose kick resulted in Alfie Johnson fielding the ball, running directly into several defenders, the ball was swiftly recycled finding its way to Jacob, who stepped and jinked his way through four would be tacklers, before timing his pass perfectly to Lynch who out paced the Rochdale cover to score in the corner. 7 - 21.

Almost immediately from kick off, Rochdale grabbed a try from their very impressive captain, who broke down the blind side, to canter in from 20 metres, conversion made 14 - 21 at half time.

Crewe started the second half like a house on fire, a brilliant turn over from Sourbutts, found its way into Luke Thomas's hands who ripped through the Rochdale defence to feed the impressive Rowlands in support to score, conversion made 14 - 28. this was unfortunately Rowlands last contribution in the game as he suffered a nasty looking shoulder injury a few moments later - we all wish him well in recovery.

Now deeply camped within the Rochdale half, it was only a matter of time before Crewe scored again and this time Sourbutts powered over from an over thrown line out, which Lynch converted from the touchline. Crewe continued to dominate proceedings through hard carries by Deegan, Griffiths, Boulton, Mckenna and Pepper, the later having putting in an outstanding performance throughout. Wave after wave of attack led to Sourbutts crossing again shortly after, followed by Lynch showing excellent speed and footballing skills to score Crewe's final points of the game. Rochdale did grab a consolation try right at the death which they thoroughly deserved.

Final Score Rochdale 21 - Crewe & Nantwich 45.

Many thanks to Rochdale for the game , and the most excellent hospitality. We wish you all the best for the rest of the season.

Try Scorers - Logan Lynch x 3, Joshua Sourbutts x 2, Joe Rowlands x 1
Penalties - Logan Lynch x 3
Conversions - Logan lynch x 3