Mediocre weekend for Tigers

Under 11's win at Whitley Bay but Under 13's lose in last few minutes of the game. Tigers senior/open age squad punished by Leeds Akkies.

Tigers 8 Leeds Akkies 88

Starting their warm up with only 14 players looked like a hard 80 minutes work was the order of the day for the Tigers who were missing experienced players again. Gareth Edwards troublesome shoulder injury sidelined him in the final few minutes of the warm up period so it looked more like the "we will fight them on the beaches" and "never have so many" speeches were being readied.
Making a welcome guest appearance for the Tigers was Andy Rispin, who as usual ran himself ragged making some big tackles and powerful runs. Rich Macnair again commanded the squad and kicked and tackled out of trouble on numerous occasions.
Leeds struck first after a few minutes as their size, speed and experience showed. The Tigers fought back and after some brilliant off-loading and slipping of tackles the ball came out to the side and back into the hands of League debutant Andy Brown to break another tackle and put the ball down over the line.

Leeds' class then started started to show and with several available replacements ran the Tigers ragged but, much to their credit, the Tigers never gave up and with dogged determination produced some amazing goal line defense to keep the score a lot lower than it could have been. Things were so desperate for the Tigers that when Coxy tried to put in a slide tackle to stop yet another Leeds try, Leeds players pleaded with the referee not to sin bin him.

Half time saw a boost in Tigers fortunes with the arrival of experienced player Micky Ruddick and new boy Evil Taff, much to the relief of Ryan Lynch who needed to be replaced because of an injury to his hip. Leeds soon found out why Evil Taff is so called as he started to wreak havoc in the Leeds attack. Mick Ruddick got down to the serious business of charging through with the ball and dropping Leeds players in the process. This lifted Tigers spirits again and the tackle rate and ferocity uncreased.
In the end though it made little difference as Leeds, who clearly should not be in this division, literally ran over the now seriously flagging Tigers.
Next week the Tigers play host to Whitley Bay Barbarians and based on the efforts from this game things are looking good.

Junior scores and reports will be made available as soon as I can get them. I do know that, once again, our under11 squad won.