Tarleton Power to an Impressive Double

Tarleton had a double header at home on Saturday with both teams having ‘must win’ fixtures. The Second XV were against 3rd. placed Aspull who were on a good run and were going to be a tough nut to crack and the First XV were up against Aldwinians who were in a similar position to themselves in the League.

On a day made for rugby both games started off as tense and tight affairs with all teams defending their line well.

The Firsts opened their score from a good line-out when the ball was passed wide to Max Skofic who made good yards and then dummied the remaining 2 Aldwinian defenders and crashed over for a good try.

Aldwinians clawed their way back into the game when a penalty to Tarleton didn’t find touch and the Aldwinian backs used the ball well and scored a good try to make the scores level.

Tarleton had some good periods of play and a good break by Archie Skofic almost resulted in a try when Will Fell was given the ball out of the tackle and as he was brought down the ball almost got to the hands of Will Parker to score but a knock on ensued. Archie was in the action again when from a No.8 pickup he crashed over to score but it was disallowed as he had clipped the referee as he went passed.

Against the run of play Aldwinians scored from a penalty just before half time to go in 8-5 in front.

The second half was a much better one for Tarleton with the forwards gaining in confidence and providing the backs with some good ball, a run by Jack Kelly and a well-timed pass to Will Fell saw him crash over in the corner to regain the lead for Tarleton

From this point on Tarleton had to defend sporadically and this they did well as Aldwinians were held at bay for the rest of the match.

Tarleton scored further tries with one from Archie Skofic following a driving maul created from a line-out and a good 35 yard run along the line by Liam Thompson resulted in another.

A further try was scored just before the end of the match and Tarleton came out 27-8 winners.

The seconds had a gruelling match and despite a lot of intimidation they kept their cool and won with two penalties either side of half time. A 6-0 win keeps them joint top of the league and they face Rossendale away next week and the First XV are also away against