Latchford climb to third place after high-scoring victory

LATCHFORD climbed up to third in the NWML Premier division, with a hard fought 32-20 win at home to Halton Farnworth Hornets.
In a high scoring encounter, it was surprising that the first points of the game did not come until the half hour mark, and they came the way of the visitors when a scoot from dummy half caught the Albion defence napping, with the score being converted to open up a six point advantage.
Latchford’s response was instant. After forcing an error, Albion were offered good field position, which they took full advantage of when Matty Rudd joined the line at pace, and his clever delayed pass was taken by Matty Nash who raced in from 20 yards, Rudd adding the extras.
Albion then took the lead following a well worked try. A move from the base of the scrum saw Charlie Groarke dummy and run to the blind side, and again Rudd was involved as he took Groarke’s pass before sending a wide pass to Gareth Fairhurst who had the pace to score in the corner.
With no further scores the half time score was finely balanced at 10-6.
Within five minutes of the restart, Halton drew level with an unconverted try, but Latchford quickly seized the initiative with two quickfire tries.
First, Rudd’s wide floated pass was collected by Fairhurst, who showed great skill to acrobatically dive in at the corner, Rudd adding a touchline conversion.
Shortly after a great solo break by Nash, was supported by centre Ben Harper who ran 50 metres to cross and, on the hour mark, Albion held a 20-10 advantage.
Credit to the visitors who quickly reduced the deficit to a solitary score with a further converted try, meaning the next score was to be crucial.
Fortunately, it was the hosts who registered this when Rob Marsh cleverly intercepted a wayward pass and ran 30 yards unopposed to score, again Rudd adding the extras.
On 78 minutes another Halton converted try saw the score reduced to 26-20, but any thoughts of them getting anything from the game were quickly extinguished when a barnstorming run by Charlie McCurrie was supported by Marsh who crossed for his second try of the afternoon. Rudd’s conversion bringing the afternoon’s game to a close with the hosts celebrating a fine victory.
Coach Martyn Ellis was naturally delighted and said ” We showed some great spirit today. We had a few lads battered and bruised, and I asked some players to play more minutes than they are used to, but everyone came together and this allowed us to dig deep and come away with the win. Jack Phillips, Charlie Groarke and Jack Foulkes all put in massive shifts in the middle, and Danny Brown led from the front like he does every week. I must give a mention to Ben Harper (pictured) who had an outstanding game, both in defence in attack, showing how he has adapted to the pace of playing at a higher level. ”
Latchford have no game this weekend due to Easter Weekend, before hosting Blackbrook on April 23, 2.30pm kick off