Blackburn 23

Burnage 12

DELIGHTED Dino Radice hailed Blackburn’s special spirit after they survived a late scare to celebrate their first home league win of the campaign with a 23-12 win over Burnage.

And it proved an unhappy return for Burnage coach Dave Muckalt, the former Saracens and ex-Manchester captain having had a spell coaching Blackburn.

Burn’s Director of Rugby Radice said: “It’s a long time since I wanted to win a game as much as this one and I’m very proud of the team.

“We had worked incredibly hard on the training pitch, then we did our pre-match routine a little differently, meeting up for a coffee in the morning and I could sense that togetherness in the squad.

“Some people were a little surprised that I was so confident that we would win, but it was a well thought out performance and we can hold our heads high.

“The mood has been a bit low in recent weeks because we’ve not had the results, but this was a massive performance and maybe this will be the turning point of our season.”

Blackburn were good value for their 16-5 half time lead.

They forged ahead in the third minute, via a Leon Fifield penalty.

Fifield had another chance a minute later, but pushed his kick wide.

However, the penalties kept coming and Fifield doubled Burn’s lead shortly afterwards as he slotted a kick from 30 metres out.

Blackburn went over for their first try in the 11th minute. As the visitors tried to run it out of their own 22, a crunching tackle caused a spill and Josh Reilly provided the ammunition for Harry Pilkington to touch down. Fifield added the extras.

Fifield had another penalty chance, this time from 40 yards, but was not successful.

Burnage finally found a gap in the home defence, forcing their way back into the contest with their first try, but Fifield extended Blackburn’s lead to 11 points at the break with another penalty.

Burnage began to turn up the heat, and Rob Bramhall’s yellow card gave the visitors the advantage of an extra man and a converted try reduced the arrears to 16-12.

However, a Burn try from Alexander Evans, returning from a long injury lay-off, eased any late nerves.