All tiers of Rugby throughout Lancashire

Fraser Grieves winning the race to the line to score
Fraser Grieves winning the race to the line to score
©Jeff Gordon

Tarleton Second XV travelled the short distance to Liverpool St. Helens knowing that a win was necessary if they were to keep in with a chance of challenging for promotion. The first 10 minutes of the game were scrappy as each side made mistakes, the best chance coming Tarletons way when a line-out catch by Jack Eckersley was ran down the touchline to within 5mtrs of the LSH line but their defence stopped the move there.

However, they had stopped the attack illegally and a quickly taken penalty by Frasier Grieves saw him dive over to open the scoring, Aidan Miller converted and Tarleton led 7-0.

LSH came straight back and an excellent run by their number 12 saw them gain good ground, unfortunately he had outrun his support and the ball was ripped off him and popped to Ben Walton who ran in from 30 metres to score a good try, again converted by Miller to move Tarleton up to a 14-0 lead.

LSH attacked again from the restart and this time their No.12 found the gap he was looking for in the Tarleton defence and with a final body swerve went over to reduce the deficit to 14-5.

For the rest of the half Tarleton kept LSH pinned back in their own territory and the Tarleton pack took control of the set pieces resulting in plenty of ball for the backs to exploit and this led to three quick tries before the break to Aidan Miller, Luke Banks and Frasier Grieves giving Tarleton a comfortable 33-7 lead at half time.

The second half followed the pattern of the first 40 minutes with Tarleton disrupting all of LSH’s scrums and it was only a matter of time before more tries were run in with Ben Walton going over again, followed by Fraser Grieves and Sam Bradshaw to five Tarleton an unassailable 43-7 lead.

The 50 point barrier was broken by yet another turned over scrum and it fell to Frasier Grieves to score this try. The last five minutes of the game saw LSH try to create something but the Tarleton defence kept them out and a clearance kick into the LSH 22 was knocked on by a chasing Tarleton player and the ref called last play as LSH set up their scrum. The final act of the game was yet another turned over scrum and a No. 8 pick-up and popped pass to Ben Walton saw him crash over the whitewash to leave Tarleton victors by 55 points to seven.