Tri Tournament too Tough for Tigers

Game 1: Warrington 7v0 MRC

James took the Captain's armband for the first game of this very tough tournament and from the start it was clear that the winter cancellations had taken its toll on the Manchester Tigers. They were slow to the breakdown throughout the game and Warrington were keen to capitalise on this from the off. With turnover at the first maul, Warrington ran rings around The Tigers to go over for their first of three in the first half. The Tigers, notorious for their slow starts, deigned to make a game of it in the second half, with good hands seeing the ball passed out wide again and again. Warrington's defensive line held firm though and with more turnover at the breakdown, four more tries were conceded by the Tigers in the second half.

Game 2: Lymm 3v1 MRC

Bruno took control of the second game and with Lymm the new opposition, The Tigers were ready to do battle. Yet again though, from the start, Lymm went over to open their account and The Tigers were left to play catch up for the rest of the match. Good handling saw The Tigers putting pressure on the Lymm line, but with the game approaching half time, a breakaway to Lymm saw them extending their lead. From the restart, Ollie took the ball to Lymm and great teamwork saw Eddie emerge with the ball to feed Harrison and then James, for The Tigers to close the gap to one going in at the break. Buoyed by the late try, The Tigers came out fighting for the second half. It was nip and tuck with both teams looking for the space to go over. For The Tigers, Ethan was desperately unlucky not to go over in the corner with the ref calling a toe in touch to deny The Tigers getting back into the game. With Lymm winning the subsequent line out but knocking on, The Tigers took advantage and as they drove forward they spilled the ball but inexplicably the ref didn't call the first infringement and with Lymm picking up, they were over before The Tigers realised that the ref had called play-on. The Tigers regrouped but the clock was against them and Lymm held their nerve to record the victory, 3v1.

Game 3: Warrington 3v2 MRC

With Warrington able to call upon plenty of reserves, Joseph stepped up to take the Captain's colours into game 3. The Tigers were more than ready for this game and with the first play, Harrison swooped on a looping pass from Thomas, to take an early lead. With Eddie, Bill and Ollie fighting for every ball in the loose and Ethan wanting to run at every opportunity, the crowd could feel a change in The Tiger's approach to this match. Again and again the valiant Tigers crashed against Warrington's defensive line only to be repelled by some stout and resolute defending. Something had to give and a bit of trickery between Matty, Charles, James and finally Bill, saw The Tigers extending their lead to 2 just before the break. With the last play of the half though, Warrington powered over to half the deficit and the game was on!! With Fin at scrum half and a new set of forwards, The Tigers were taken aback when Warrington ran uncontested to level the score right at the start of the half. From then on, it was anyone's game. First The Tigers drove and then defended as Warrington piled on the pressure. Finally, with only seconds remaining, the opposition ran wide and a couple of missed tackles saw Warrington steal the match 3v2 as the final whistle blew. A great game by two sides that had come to play open rugby, and a vast improvement from the first game which saw Warrington overrun The Tigers at every stage of play.

Some real positives from the final game though as ever, lots of work to do in the loose and with man to man marking when the boys line up. Today's totally awesome Tigers were (tries in brackets): Bill(1), Bruno, Eddie, Charles, Eddie, Ethan, Fin, Harrison(1), James(1), Joseph, Josh, Max, Matty, Myles, Ollie and Thomas.

No.1 Attacker - Josh
No.1 Defender - Charles
Tackle of the Day - Myles
Man of the Match - James

Next week finds us away to our closest rivals, Stockport. See you at their ground at 10am next Sunday. They also suffer from a lack of parking spaces so try and get there as early as you can. Thanks, Ian