Tarleton fall short in thriller

With 23 senior players unavailable due to work commitments and injury the Second XV had to concede their away cup match v Waterloo and the Firsts travelled away to Wigan RUFC  with a squad made up of the usual mix of age and experience with some colts stepping up to the mark again.

On a grey November afternoon both sides started well and spent the first 10 minutes probing for weaknesses in each others’ defence. The early exchanges saw Tarleton kicking for position whilst Wigan were playing more with ball in hand.

Tarleton were holding their own in the line-outs and seemed to have the upper hand in the scrums. It was Wigan who opened the scoring when their No. 10 danced through the Tarleton defence to give a try scoring pass that saw them take a 7-0 lead. Tarleton came back at them and not for the first time Wigan collapsed the scrum under pressure from the Tarleton 8 but the resulting penalty just went left of the uprights.

Wigan picked up the pace of the game and as ever this season Tarleton were having to make many tackles to try and keep the opposition out, Wigan almost broke through again but knocked on in front of the posts and from the resulting scrum Aiden Miller cleared the danger to halfway.

Wigan again threatened just before half time and Tarleton were penalised for coming in from the side and a quickly taken penalty saw Wigan over for their 2nd Try and this saw them 14-0 up at the break.

The half time talk was that Tarleton were still in this game but from the re-start they appeared to be asleep and the Wigan 13 and 9 ran through the Tarleton defence with some good inter-play that saw them increase the Wigan lead to 21-0.

Five minutes later from a penalty Wigan kicked for the corner and went for a catch and drive from the line-out and even thought this was stopped they managed to ship the ball out wide and score in the corner, the conversion was missed and Wigan led 26-0.

Was this to be another heavy defeat on the cards for Tarleton? They have struggled in the latter stages of matches this season but this week something happened and the forwards seemed to grow in stature as the game progressed. They started to run the game and to be honest Wigan didn’t seem to have an answer.

From a penalty that was kicked to the corner the pack set the line out, caught good ball and drove Wigan over the line to get their first points of the afternoon. At 26-7 there was still a mountain to climb but Tarleton seemed to be up for it, the pack again using their very effective rolling maul with Lee Waddell and Chris Gordon at the fore and Jack Skofic exhorting them to greater efforts.

Wigans’ only defence to this was to bring the maul down and after doing this twice 5 metres out the ref awarded a penalty try to Tarleton. Aiden Miller added the extras and Tarleton were now standing at 26-14 down.

From the re-start Tarleton gave a penalty away for being offside and Wigan gratefully took the 3 points to increase their lead to 29-14.

Tarleton came again and wave after wave of attack was met with some dogged resistance from Wigan and their No. 10 cleared 1 attack with a booming kick that almost made the Tarleton 22. This was collected running at full pace by Will Fell who crashed through several tackles before off-loading to Will parker who beat three Wigan defenders before slipping the ball to Jack Skofic who shrugged off the last Wigan defender to score beneath the sticks – 29-21.

With 10 minutes left Tarleton still had to defend their line but were also causing Wigan some alarm with their play. The forwards again moved the ball up field dragging in Wigan players to defend the maul a good line by Jack Skofic saw him power over for another try and the conversion was good left Wigan ahead by 29-28.

Unfortunately for Tarleton the conversion was deemed to be the last play of the match and they were beaten by the clock.

This was a tremendous second half performance from Tarleton and although another defeat they achieved 2 bonus points and should take heart from a truly magnificent performance. They are at home next week against Aldwinians with the Seconds also at home against Southport RUFC.

If they can manage this intensity for a full 80 minutes more points are on offer next week.