Last updated at 15:12, Wednesday, 29 October 2008

NORTH WEST COUNTIES

Dalton                 18

Orrell St James 14

DALTON came from behind to record a narrow win over Orrell St James at Kelland Park.

The visitors were first to score when some slack Dalton tackling allowed Campbell to land an unconverted try.

The home side hit back when Craig Regan powered over after an Orrell knock-on had handed Dalton a scrum.

The conversion was missed – hardly surprising given the terrible conditions.

This certainly wasn’t a day for kicking, iIndeed there were only two converted tries all game.

Orrell went back in front when Campbell raced in from 50 yards to make the score 8-4.

Both teams continued to play good rugby but there were no further points added before half-time in this well-spirited encounter.

Dalton levelled the scores in the second half when good play from Paul Jones and Mattie Bolton resulted in Luke O’Connor going over the whitewash.

However, the visitors went in front for a third time when they were awarded a penalty on the Dalton line and Taylor went over for a try.

Wilson converted to make it 14-8 to Orrell.

The visitors continued to press with some good attacking play, but Dalton’s defence held firm.

The home side then closed the gap to two points when Sam Costa intercepted a pass and ran 40 yards to score.

Sensing a possible home victory, Dalton attacked strongly with some powerful runs, Jones denied a scoring opportunity on the last tackle when an Orrell player kicked the ball dead.

Dalton scored what turned out to be the winning try when Jones steamed in from 50 yards to score under the posts.

O’Connor converted to make the final score 18-14.

First published at 11:45, Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk