Brave Tarleton Fightback In Vain As Hawcoat Prevail

Tarleton welcomed Hawcoat Park RUFC to Carr lane on Saturday, a team brimming with confidence after four straight maximum point victories under their belts had put them at the top of the table.

Still with a few first choice players unavailable Tarleton put out their strongest side available and were ready for the challenge. The first 10 minutes of the game was disrupted by constant penalties being awarded to both sides and Hawcoat Park were playing a positional game happily booting the ball downfield into touch to clear their lines on several occasions. 

It was Tarleton who drew first blood though. A clearance kick was gathered by Matt Forrest who charged at the upcoming Hawcoat defensive line and  he slipped a good pass to Max Skofic who danced through the Hawcoat defence to score a good try and the conversion gave Tarleton a 7-0 advantage.

Hawcoat Park were then put under some severe pressure by Tarleton but despite being camped on their line for 10 minutes they could not score. Hawcoat Park continued to kick for position and almost created a good chance with a deft kick that just ran too far.

From the22 drop-out Hawcoat knocked on and Tarleton then proceeded to lose their own scrum and the Hawcoat No. 8 picked up and gave a good pass for his centre to score under the posts to level the scores with 25 minutes gone.

Tarleton continued to pressurise and a promising break by George Skofic saw a well timed pass to Archie Skofic who made it into the Hawcoat 22 and with support coming up the Hawcoat defender dived over to kill the ball and stop the opportunity to score in its tracks. A penalty was given, slotted over by Elliot Burton and Tarleton led again - 10-7.

The next 15 minutes up to half-time was all Hawcoat as they attacked the Tarleton defence from all angles. The defence held firm until the last minute of the half when a good tackle had put the Hawcoat winger into touch just short of the line and from a bad line out Tarleton gifted the ball and a try to Hawcoat  who were more than happy to go in at half time with a 14-10 lead.

This try seemed to affect Tarleton and in the first minutes of the second half Hawcoat took advantage of some sloppy play and their full-back collected a ball kicked through and found a gap in the Tarleton line to score a good individual try.

At 19-10 down Tarleton stepped up a gear and within five minutes had pulled the score back to 19-17 with a good try in the corner for Max Skofic’s second of the day.

At 19-17 down, there was everything to play for, but it was Hawcoat Park who finished the stronger and they ran in two good tries that left Tarleton’s challenge in tatters.

This was a good performance against a very well drilled and fit side that possibly could have been closer if Tarleton had managed to turn their possession in Hawcoat’s 22 into points.

Next week they travel to Aspatria which will be another hard game against another of the top four in the league.

Meanwhile the second XV took a narrow victory against local rivals Ormskirk which sees them move into second place in the table - they face Leigh RUFC next Saturday in a home match with a 3.00pm kick off.