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Anselmians 30 Ashton on Mersey 16
This was always going to be a very tough game and credit to the visitors who had a game plan to cut off the source of Anselmians’ creativity. They targeted their defence at key players and had some success. However, Anselmians were not going to be intim
The home side got off to a flyer when following the kick off a pin point cross field kick from Simon Mason found right wing Mark Petterson catch the ball. He beat one defender then his strength saw him stretch over the line as a second tackler desperately tried to stop him. The swirling wind blew the conversion onto the post dropping the wrong side. The score was 5-0. Ashton got back into the game 7 minutes later when a catch and rolling maul got them close to the line. The ball went wide right where they had an overlap to go in by the corner flag. The score was 5-5. The home side left wing, Jordan Lomax got on the score sheet when he tackled his opposite number and stole the ball. He then raced to the corner flag for the try. It was unconverted to give a score of 10-5. A further try came mid-way through the half when centre Marcus Coast went through the Ashton defence. As he was being tackled he managed to kick the ball towards the line where full back Matt Allen was in support to win the race to the ball. The score was 15-5. A converted penalty for both sides gave a half time score of 18-8.
The visitors got an early try in the second half with their forwards doing the hard graft. The score was now 18-13. They must have thought they had a chance to defeat the league leaders. However, within the space of 15 minutes make shift scrum half Matt Pennington grabbed a brace of tries. His first was courtesy of the forwards after some pressure was put on the visitors’ defence. He took the opportunity to dive over a mass of bodies. Simon Mason converted to give a score of 25-13. His second came after a good run from wing Jordan Lomax deep into the visitors’ 22. There was support in numbers and the ball went to Matt Pennington who easily went over the line. The score was now 30-13. Five minutes from the end Ashton converted a penalty to give a final a score of 30-16.
There were debuts for new recruits Tom Zuger and Sonatone Hauanga.
Scorers: Tries: Mark Petterson, Jordan Lomax, Matt Allen, Matt Pennington (2)
Conversions: Simon Mason
Penalties: Simon Mason
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