Tarleton 'win ugly' against Ormskirk

Tarleton travelled to Ormskirk for their first league meeting of the season full of confidence  on the back of a 94-0 drubbing of North Manchester the previous Saturday.

However, they did not get off to a good start and their play was not up to its usual standard in the early exchanges and indeed it was Ormskirk who put points on the board first when a missed tackle from a line-out in Tarletons’ 22 saw the Ormskirk No. 8 crash through to score. The conversion from wide out was unlucky not to go over when it hit the outside of the right hand upright.

Tarleton started to put some phases together and Ormskirk were penalised for ‘hands in the ruck’ and this was quickly taken by Archie Skofic who set up a try for Aiden Miller with a well-timed pass, he added the extras and Tarleton were ahead 7-5.

From the restart the ball was taken by Hugo Castle who passed it out to Ben Cromack who made good ground with options either side, he chose to come inside and used Johnny Mahon to continue the forward impetus and he passed the ball inside to the charging Aiden Miller who went in for his second try. Tarleton were now 12-5 ahead although Ormskirk came back at them and spent time in their 22 this was the score at half time.

The second half started scrappily with both sides making mistakes and the game became a succession of scrums. Tarleton turned one of Ormskirks over and good play between Will Fell and Ollie Barham saw them charge into the Ormskirk 22 and offload to Archie Skofic who went in under the posts to score.

At 17-5 Tarleton started to come at Ormskirk from every angle and a clearance kick by Ormskirk was gathered by Will Fell and using Mike Jones they made good ground before a pass to matt Forrest who was running a great line saw him dance through the Ormskirk defence to score.Aiden Miller added the points for the conversion and Tarleton were 24-5 ahead.

Tries followed from Ollie Barham and Matt Forrest as the Ormskirk defensive effort began to flag and they both utilised the gaps to score. At 36-5 it was game over but Ormskirk refused to lie down and some good handling by their back line and another Tarleton missed tackle saw them score a converted try to bring the score to 36-12.

From the re-start Tom Eckersley turned the ball over and passed it to the rampaging James Seddon who broke the gain line and offloaded to Aiden Miller who went over for his hat-trick, he added the conversion and Tarleton were ahead 43-12.

Ormskirk still kept on trying and they had the final say with the ball being moved well out of the tackle and quick hands saw it go out to their right wing who raced in to score, the conversion was good and the final score was 43-19 to Tarleton.

This was not a good performance by Tarleton but they ‘won ugly’ as they say and know that they created several more try-scoring opportunities that they should have taken and need to work on ball retention at the breakdown.

The Second XV also entertained Ormskirk at Carr Lane and just edged a victory by 22-18.

The Firsts entertain Orrell at home next week and the Seconds travel to Rochdale for their fixture.