Thumping Win For Tarleton 2nds Over Leigh
Leigh could only raise 13 players and Tarleton took full advantage to win comfortably
Tarleton raced into a 52-point lead at half-time
However, it was Leigh who scored the final try of the game
Tarleton Second XV were up against Leigh at home this week and put out a good squad to try and end their unbeaten run.
Leigh turned up with only 13 players so, in order to play 15 man rugby, Tarleton volunteered Brad Jones to play for them!
From the start of the game it was clear that Leigh were desperate to keep the ball in the forwards as Tarleton's younger backs and the extra man was going to cause them problems if the ball could be used properly.
With five minutes gone the Tarleton pack won a scrum against the head and Matt Lewis flung the ball wide to Jordan Dawson who ran in the first of his four tries of the afternoon. Tarleton then played some more good rugby but spurned two good chances to score by not making the final pass which would have seen either winger in.
A penalty was converted 10 minutes in and Tarleton then scored a few quick tries with the first being created by some swift passing by the backs and some good lines being run which resulted in a Joe Bullen score under the posts.
The next was one that won’t be repeated often when Lee Waddell received the ball at pace to run almost 40 metres and throw an outrageous dummy to the Leigh fullback before crossing the whitewash to score.
Following that, a scrum in the Leigh 22 saw Matt Lewis and Sam Cleaver run a well-worked move to bamboozle the Leigh defence and set Sam up to score a good try.
The score was 31-0 with 18 minutes of the first half remaining and from the restart the ball was caught by Kyri who flipped a pass to John Pearce who laid the ball off to Jordan Dawson who burst through the gap to score his second.
Leigh put 10 minutes of pressure on Tarleton but their defence held firm and an interception by Lee Booth and a good run saw yet another try to Tarleton who were playing some really well structured rugby. Leigh came back again but the ball was lost in Tarleton’s 22 and a good cross kick was collected by Jordan Dawson who just had to run in to score his hat-trick. This was the last score of the half and saw Tarleton dominating the proceedings with a 52-0 lead.
The second half saw Tarleton make several changes and from a poor kick off by Leigh the scrum back saw JT pass the ball to Lee Booth who cut back in and threw a long pass out to Phil Campion who broke through three tackles to score.
Further tries from Jordan Dawson, Ollie Parsons (first competitive try for the club) and a second for Phil Campion saw Tarleton 70-0 up and it fell to Leigh to score the final points of the game with a consolation try to leave the final score 70-5.
The First 15 had the long journey to Aspatria RUFC and lost 24-7 - they face Blackburn RUFC away next week and will be looking to get back to winning ways in this local derby.
The Second XV are away as well against Fylde RUFC and need to build on Saturday’s victory to keep the pressure on Bolton who remain ahead of them in the league.
