Horden 26 Blackburn RUFC 22

6:46pm Tuesday 12th February 2008

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BLACKBURN'S dreams of playing at Twickenham came to an end with an agonising four point defeat in the North East.

Burn fought back from a 21-0 deficit in the EDF Senior Vase six round tie but missed too many scoring chances to overhaul a defiant and tenacious home team.

Blackburn, currently top of North Lancs/Cumbria Division, got off to the worse possible start when they conceded two tries, had a player sin-binned and missed opportunities to get points on the board as they trailed 21-0 at the break.

But it was a different Blackburn side after the break and Jordan Pearson scored but skipper Paul Bleasdale was short with the conversion.

Crucially, Horden scored an all important third try to make it 26-5 and despite Blackburn scoring three more tries from Barnes, Lambert and Pearson, missed kicks proved to be costly and they crashed out of the cup.

Chairman of rugby, Gareth Dyer, said: "It's hard to take that we have gone out in such a manner. We created so many chances and to have no points at half time was amazing. We tried hard to come back in the second half but those missed chances hurt us and to gift them that try at the start of the second half really hurt us."

Blackburn return to league action on Saturday when they face Rossendale in a top of the table clash.

"We have to ensure we get our selection right and make sure we don't repeat those mistakes," added Dyer. "We have a big week of training in front of us to make sure we are ready for what is an important game between two good sides.

"We are in a strong position and we must look to consolidate that this Saturday'.