Tarleton shut out Bury for important win

Tarleton Seconds again found themselves with only 13 players on paper at 11.00am on Saturday morning but the last minute ring rounds came up trumps and by the kick off there were the required 18 players donning Tarleton shirts.

They were up against Bury who were one place above them in the league and they also came with a full squad containing the usual percentage of large players.

From the kick off it was obvious that both sides were up for this game and that they were evenly matched. Despite probing runs from Bury’s flankers and centres and Tarleton’s Jamal Cantwell, Gary MacDiarmid and Lewis Burton both defences held firm and the game although exciting was becoming a bit of a stalemate.

Defence is a large part of the game of rugby these days and both sides were organising themselves well with plenty of talk going on. In attack Tarleton looked the sharper but again kicked possession away when it might have been better to keep the ball in hand and recycle. Bury also looked good in attack but they tended to drop the telling pass or knock on at crucial moments giving the ball back to Tarleton.

The scrums were equal and eventually Tarleton took control in the line-out but neither side could force an opening in the game.

Bury had the first chance to put points on the board about three minutes before the break when awarded a penalty for one of the Tarleton players coming in from the side. The Bury kicker set the ball but pulled it left of the uprights letting Tarleton off the hook.

It always looked like it would be a stroke of brilliance or a mistake that would allow the first score and Bury helped Tarleton when one of their players was binned early in the second half for illegal use of the knee in the maul.

Tarleton took advantage of this and pushed Bury into their 22 with a good driving maul and a little tap through was foiled as a Bury player pulled one of Tarletons’ chasers back. The penalty was to the left of the posts about 25 yards out and up stepped Ian Simcox who calmly slotted the penalty to give Tarleton a 3-0 lead with 30 minutes still to play.

Both sides had chances in the last period of the game but as in the first half there was no way to be found through two resolute defences.

Tarleton had to defend more than Bury towards the end but they managed to keep them out until the final whistle and take the points on offer.

This was a solid performance and the players just need to start communicating better about their availability and start pushing to move up the league. Next week sees them in cup action at Waterloo - they will need a full squad for this local match if they are to progress further.