Too Tough for the Tigers

A very tight group saw Manchester Tigers draw two and lose two by slender margins, with only Sharky being troubled by the marauding Tigers.

Game 1 saw us up against Sandbach. From the start it was nip and tuck with Fin crossing the line for our first try. Sandbach responded from the restart and it was end to end rugby with plenty of tagging and commitment from both teams. Though he was carrying a broken finger, Luke went over for the Tigers second try but Sandbach equalized on the stroke of half time. The second half saw great endeavour with Eddie, Alex and Josh all being held up on the opposition try line. Turnover ball meant that we had to tag, tag, tag to get the ball back which the Tigers did resolutely, winning back the ball inside their own half. Myles ran from an Ollie restart and William was out wide to take the ball over for a 1 point lead going into the last quarter of the match. Sandbach raised their game yet again and were soon back in contention with a breakaway try. The Tigers now had the ball for the last play of the game. Unfortunately, the ball was knocked on from the restart and Sandbach took full advantage of a tiring Tigers Team to run in a fourth try and take the match, 4-3.

Game 2 saw Bowdon enter the fray. We were confident of a good result here having won away at Bowdon last season, but alas, it was not to be. The Tigers took a two try early lead with Josh blazing over in his usual effortless style. Maybe the start was to easy and the Tigers dropped a gear to allow a battling Bowdon side back into the match midway through the first half. William went over in the second half to regain the lead with Josh again going over for his third and the Tigers fourth. Bowdon would not succumb though and they regrouped once more to bring the scores level at 4-4. The Tigers had one final chance with Ollie taking a pass from Louis to burst through the Bowdon defence. Ollie was clean through with the try line beckoning when inexplicably, the ref blew for full time. There are no words to express what the faces of the Tigers showed.

Game 3 saw us facing Altrincham. the Tigers came out roaring but could never capitalise on scoring first, with Altrincham equal to the Tigers at every stage of the game. For the third game in a row, William went over for our first with the next three all coming from the jinxing running of the one handed Luke. Alex popped up to score our fifth, but it was never enough and Altrincham again leveled before the final whistle, ending the game 5-5.

Our last group game was against Ormskirk and though we started brightly enough, the Tigers were obviously running out of steam. With only a ten man squad to pick from the lads had run their socks off all through the tournament and now they were paying the price. That didn't stop them making a game of it though, with Alex picking up where he left off in the last game and scoring our first try. Mat was on hand to feed to Eddie for the second but Ormskirk just came straight back to level the scores for a second time. in the second half, fatigue really kicked in with only Eddie going over for his well deserved second try. Ormskirk's pressure was relentless and their superior numbers in reserve showed as they took the tie 5-3 by the final whistle.

Still, a great day was had by both parents and players alike and a lot of good rugby came out of the Tigers. They jelled well as a team and really supported each other throughout the day. There are signs of lots of good things to come, we just need to work on consistency, straight running in attack and strong tagging in defence!!

The Brave Hearts at the tournament were (tries in brackets): Luke(4), Josh(3), William(3), Alex(2), Eddie(2), Fin(1), Ollie, Louis, Myles and Mat. Well done to one and all.

Bring on Macclesfield on the 24th. Hope to see you all there.