WINNINGTON Park RUFC's first visit to newly promoted Rossendale ended in a comfortable 35-13 victory.

But the game started badly for Park when they knocked on from the kick off and Rossendale No 8 Jaco Swart charged through the middle of the Winnington defence to score under the posts, while fellow South African Dewet Norgie converted.

Winnington gave away another penalty in front of the posts, when deemed to be lying on the ball, which was converted and Park found themselves 10-0 down after just 10 minutes.

Good forward play saw Park force their way back into the game and they were awarded a penalty when the opposition handled on the floor. Gary Bell converted.

Winnington maintained the pressure and were awarded another penalty following a collapsed maul.

Gary Bell kicked the three points to make the score 10-6.

Park's forwards began to dominate play and produced great handling which eventually saw Carl Patterson cross the line for an unconverted try.

Another penalty just before the break gave Park a 14-10 half time lead - a lead they never looked like giving up.

A strong start to the second period saw Rossendale close the gap to one point with a well taken penalty.

But this was as close as they got as Park ran riot to secure an excellent win.

A penalty try, following illegal play from Rossendale, re-established Park's healthy lead and they built on this with a try from Steve Jones which was converted by Bell.

Winnington continued to tackle well, particularly Will Burgess, the Patterson brothers and Andrew Barnes, and this prevented Rossendale from entering the Park half.

Meanwhile Winnington's backs continued to threaten and Jones continued his good start to the season with another try under the posts which was again converted by Bell.

This weekend Winnington are at home against the other promoted newcomers Tyldesley.

l PARK 2nds faced an uphill battle against a physical Blackburn side that featured a Fijian flanker who scored a hat trick in the opening 15 minutes.

Jack Bowden (2), Joe Ellis and Paul Gibson scored tries for Park, while Paul McCafferty added a conversion, but it just wasn't enough as Park were beaten 52-22.