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TARLETON 19 – ANSELMIANS 54
Bright dry conditions met the Saints players on their visit to Carr Lane, home of Tarleton RUFC. Tarleton are well-known for their excellent 7s tournament and great mini and junior set up.
As we near the end of the season, a few changes due to injury and niggles are bound to happen, so it was a slightly changed squad that kicked off against Tarleton.
Saints did not have it all their own way and Tarleton made some inroads into the Saints half, with good defence. However, after a turnover scrum on the five-metre line, Tommy Banks went over to score.
After a few minutes more, James Whitehouse broke through to outpace the defence and score the second. Tarleton kept up the pressure and with a missed tackle from the Saints’ defence, managed a try themselves.
Next score was again from Saints, with Morley jinking through to score. Quickly afterwards, Tarleton charged down a kick to score their second try.
With two of the Saints players coming off due to injury niggles, it was a powerful driving maul next that allowed Dan Salisbury to touch down.
With Morley adding all the conversions, half time 12-28 to Saints.
The second half was one-way traffic with James Otoha, Dai Morley for his second, James Whitehouse for his second, and a final try to Niall Cavanagh.
Tarleton did manage to score a late try, to make the score 19-54 to Saints.
It was a decent performance from Tarleton, a well-drilled side that is much improved from earlier in the season, when they lost heavily at Eastham.
Excellent scrums and line outs provided Saints with a great platform. There were some fantastic performances, notably from Jack Richards and Niall Cavanagh who was everywhere, with cover tackles, line out work and hard yards through the middle.
Man of the Match goes to Dai Morley with two tries, 7/7 conversions, and great distribution of the ball.
Tarleton15 Ben Walton14 Jolyon Cropper13 Fraser Grieves12 Elliot Newsham11 Cameron Fish10 Samuel Mallinson9 Joseph Wignall1 William Parker2 Rob Williamson3 Brian Comashey4 Hugo Castle5 Luke Taylorson6 Robert Abram7 Matthew Forrest8 Ben CromackTarleton SubsS1 Jack HallS2 Joseph BullenS3 Thomas Crowe
Anselmians15 Benjamin Sadler14 James Whitehouse13 Andrew Cummings12 Ransford Otutaha11 Thomas Banks10 David Morley9 Liam Sadler1 Stephen Brooks2 Daniel Salisbury3 Derek Salisbury4 Fred Clark5 Jack Richards6 Niall Cavanagh7 Jonathan Bonner8 William GrabeAnselmians SubsS1 Kellum FridayS2 Thomas LockwoodS3 Benjamin O’Connor
Anselmians 1st XV’s next game is home to De La Salle on Saturday 9 April for a 3pm kick-off.
Image credit: Derek Salisbury Snr
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