Royton Town 0 Prestwich Heys 0 (From Prestwich and Whitefield Guide)

Royton Town 0 Prestwich Heys 0

4:16pm Wednesday 8th April 2009

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SEDGLEY Tigers went down to a narrow defeat on an emotional day at Park Lane on Saturday.

There was a minute’s applause prior to kick-off in memory of Tigers’ director of rugby Tim Fourie’s daughter, Georgia, who died recently.

The Tigers were playing in pink to promote breast cancer charity The Genesis Appeal, and somehow the two unrelated events inspired them to score inside 58 seconds.

Crisp passing from the kick off created space on the right where Matt Riley crashed over and Phil Jones’s conversion made it 7-0.

The Pirates hit back with an Aisea Havili try and Simon Whatling’s penalty kick put them in front 8-7.

The Tigers missed the opportunity to score again when Mark Atkinson, on loan from Sale Sharks, knocked-on in the act of touching down.

Jones’s boot restored the home side’s lead with a penalty kick, but the lead swapped again when Whatling kicked a second penalty for the Pirates. Seven minutes from half-time, they scored a second try, courtesy of Heino Senekal, but the Tigers ended the first half the stronger.

Attacking down the left, Jones switched the point of attack dramatically when his diagonal cross-field kick was gathered by Peter Swatkins on the right. He fed Riley who dived over to make it 11-10.

Early in the second half, the Tigers allowed the Pirates to run in two further tries – the first from Paul Devlin, goaled by Whatling, the second from Rhodri McAtee – to reclaim the lead.

On the hour they stretched it further when Mike Burak barged over and Whatling added the extras to make it 35-15.

However, the Tigers hit back again on 63 minutes. They won a lineout inside the Pirates’ 22 and lock Glen Townson crashed through the tackles to score the Tigers’ third try.

They were rewarded with a fourth in injury time at the end of the game, enough to secure a bonus point.

Swatkins fielded a kick and sprinted down the right only to be tackled on the Pirates’ 22, but the Tigers retained possession and fed the ball the width of the pitch to Phil Largan, who darted over in the left corner.

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