Blackburn suffered their first defeat of the season, as they lost 11-3 away to Kirkby Lonsdale.

So far this season, Blackburn’s forwards have bossed their opponents, however they were unable to impose their superiority on a well-organised Kirkby. Blackburn had an early chance to open the scoring, when they had a penalty kick at goal after three minutes – the kick was taken by Dom Hogan, it was well struck, however it landed just short.

The home side soon had a chance to take the lead with a penalty after seven minutes and their fly half, Parsons, duly took this with an impressive kick from 35 metres out. He added a second on 12 minutes to make it 6-0.

Blackburn did manage to claw some points back after a successful penalty kick from Hogan on 24 minutes, however these proved to be the only points for the away side on a frustrating day.

Burn’s problems were compounded on 25 minutes when returning captain, Luke Copping, hobbled off with a leg injury.

The second half didn’t start well for Blackburn with centre Anton Garcia, going off after just three minutes.

The game was tight, until the 52nd minute, when from a line out in Blackburn’s 22, the home side drove on, before the scrum half picked up and scampered over to score what would be the match-winning try.