Ruskin15 Ashton on Mersey 6 (From St Helens Star)

Ruskin15 Ashton on Mersey 6

10:56am Thursday 28th February 2013 in Sport

RUSKIN totally dominated this game, and only two disallowed tries for forward passes robbed them of a more flattering scoreline and a four try bonus point.

Ruskin played with composure and passion and retained the ball for long periods.

Karl Jones had another excellent game and crossed the try line under the posts only for the referee to bring the game back 40 metres for a forward pass.

Ruskin remained composed and eventually scored an excellent fast flowing try out wide, Fogarty narrowly missing a difficult kick from the touch line.

Farrelly was running into spaces that did not appear to be there and continued to make valuable ground and constantly put AOM under pressure.

The forwards particularly Matt Tindell and Stu Liversley were outstanding and continued to recycle ball for the backs to attack on the front foot.

The Ruskin pack started to get penalised for constantly interfering with the opposition ball on the ground.

Although nearly total control was in Ruskin's favor the half time score was 8 - 6 and AOM were still in the game.

An injury to the excellent Mike O'Keefe meant a re shuffle of the back line and Chris Birch came on to the pitch, almost immediately his pace saw him out strip the AoM back line and score a superb try for Fogarty to convert 15-6.

Ruskin continued to attack the AoM try line and another fast attack saw great hands from Howden put Mousley over the line, with no doubt of the extra points but the referee again decided it was a forward pass.

Real grit and determination saw Ruskin control the last minutes of the game with clever line out play and then a tackle and turn over by Matt Tindall that epitomised the effort and passion of the Ruskin team.