Tarleton 2nds beaten by visitors Ormskirk

Tarleton Seconds welcomed Ormskirk Seconds to Carr Lane on Saturday and with gale force winds blowing across the pitch and dropping temperatures it was not going to be a game for the purists.

Tarleton drew first blood from a quickly taken penalty in the Ormskirk 22, Sam Bradshaw burst through the defensive tackles and as he was stopped just short of the line managed to pop the ball to Brian Parsons who crashed over for a try. The extras were added by George Cook and Tarleton took an early 7-0 lead.

Ormskirk came straight back and should have scored but a forward pass spoilt their chance. Both sides were struggling with their passing as the ball was being held up or blown back by the wind and it was Ormskirk who adapted to the conditions the best.

They kept the ball alive in contact and short passes were the order of the day. This tactic saw them draw level with a well worked try involving at least 8 passes that levelled the scores after 17 minutes.

Tarleton were on the back foot and from a period of defensive tackling Ian Simcox somehow collected the ball and burst through the Ormskirk line to make good ground before off-loading to the supporting Will Parker Jnr. who scored a good try. The score was now 12-7 to Tarleton but they didn’t look comfortable and were under constant pressure from the larger Ormskirk forwards and notably their No.8 who created mayhem every time he had the ball.

The forwards for Ormskirk created two tries before half time to go in with a 19-12 lead and Tarleton had to sort themselves out at half time and contend with Ormskirk having the advantage of the wind in the second half.

However, it was Ormskirk who continued to play to their strengths and were constantly pressurising the Tarleton defence two further tries came giving Ormskirk a comfortable 31 -12 lead and Tarleton didn’t seem to have any answers to this Ormskirk attack.

Even when Tarleton had possession they lost it in contact, dropped the pass or kicked possession away and Ormskirk capitalised on this by penning Tarleton in their 22 for most of the remainder of the game. Ormskirk plundered two further tries including their last one were one of their forwards ran in a try from about 8 metres with 3 Tarleton players hanging off him.

Tarleton were now behind by 43-12 but still managed to get a consolation try in the last minutes when Mike Foreman did some good rucking and released the ball to the on-rushing Dave King who scored a good try. This was converted and the match ended at 43-19 in Ormskirks favour.

To be honest Tarleton never got going today and couldn’t adapt to the conditions and Ormskirk could and ran out worthy winners.

From reports from the first team encounter away at North Manchester it sounds as though the First XV suffered from the same problem.

After beating the top of the league at home last week they lost away to the bottom of the league on Saturday, a bad day at the office for both teams.