Perfect Start To The Tarleton Season

Tarleton started their 2013- 2014 Season in the North Lancs & Cumbria League with a home match against Whitehaven RUFC.

This was to be a test for the first team and a chance for them to see if they could compete at this higher level.

Whitehaven came with a much larger pack than Tarleton possess but it didn’t seem to phase the Tarleton defence as all their hard running forwards were brought to earth with a bang, well several bangs actually.

The first 10 minutes saw both sides probing each other’s defences for a weakness and it was Whitehaven that cracked first when from some good forward play. The ball was released to Ben Kelly who made good ground before flipping an inside pass to George Skofic who also made good yardage before being brought down short of the line. Fortunately, Jack Skofic was on hand to scoop up the ball and crash full length over the line to open the scoring.

Whitehaven came back strongly and put Tarleton under pressure but despite being awarded two kickable penalties failed to convert them.

Whitehaven had the advantage of a strong wind behind them and they used it well penning Tarleton into their own 22 for long spells; however, Tarleton turned defence into attack well from a line out in the Whitehaven half. The ball was quickly spread wide and George Skofic scored a good individual try despite the attention of three Whitehaven defenders.

This was followed by another good backs try for Tarleton, with some slick handling on display. The ball was moved along the line and back again pulling the Whitehaven defence apart and allowing Will Fell to crash over in the corner to take the half time lead to 15-0.

The second half was fairly similar to the first and even after Tarleton lost a player to the bin they were determined not to let Whitehaven cross the whitewash. Another good run by George Skofic resulted in a penalty that was converted into points by Jamal Raman Cantwell, to take Tarleton into an 18-0 lead.

Good interplay between brothers, Max Skofic and Archie Skofic, resulted in a converted try for Tarleton and a final penalty from Cantwell saw the final score as a 28-0 victory.

A great start to the season for the Tarleton first team, and with the Second XV beating Wigan RUFC in their first match of the season, Tarleton couldn’t have asked for a better start.