Winlaton Vulcans RFC

Acklam won the toss and chose to play up the slope. The stronger Winlaton pack forced Acklam to defend in their 22. Although they had most of the possession they failed to make the best of it, squandering chance after chance. On 11mins,after some slick passing between Graeme Clarkson, Mickey Wharton and Tariq Albassam, Andy Robinson crashed over the line only to be adjudged to have been held up, a mystery to those watching. 5mins later a home forward drive seemed to result in a try but again it was not given. It was Acklam who broke the deadlock on 22mins, against the run of play. Some poor defending by Winlaton allowed the visitors to create an overlap and score a converted try in the corner. Winlaton responded with Tariq Albassam, Mickey Wharton and Jamie Reddihough making excellent breaks but It was Dan Mothersdale, who made the telling break, which allowed Ian Fleming to score in the corner for 5-7. Mickey Wharton missing the difficult conversion.

HT 5 – 7

Although Acklam had the slope in their favour they made very little use of the advantage . They were finding it difficult to make headway and only lack of discipline by Winlaton gave them a platform from which to attack.

The boredom was eventually broken by a spate of fisticuffs between the sides and if anything it had the effect of livening up the game.

Winlaton forwards began to dominate and on 70mins, after several excellent drives Andy Moore added the ‘finishing touch’ by scoring near the corner, Mickey Wharton converting for a 12-7 lead. Winlaton finished the game in control but once again it was not one of their better performances, making things hard for themselves and failing to make the most of their chances.

FT 12 – 7

MoM Mickey Wharton