Tamworth Well beaten By Walsall

High flying Walsall were the visitors to Wiggington Park on Saturday to face an in form Tamworth side who had been victorious in their last four outings.
It soon became clear why Walsall are vying for top spot in the league as they put Tamworth under early pressure moving the ball nicely through the hands along with their sizable forward pack punching holes in the Tamworth defence. This being said to the most part Tamworth were equal to the challenge during these opening exchanges.
It was only a matter of time though before the visitors took the lead as they found room on the outside and their winger slid in for their opening try of the day (0-5)
Tamworth came back into the running throwing everything at Walsall but the visiting defence comfortably soaked up the pressure and extended their lead on the half hour mark hitting Tamworth on the break to score a converted try (0-12)
Sid Wood would get Tamworth moving on the scoreboard with a penalty taking over kicking duties from Danny Norton who had left the field with a reoccurrence of the hamstring injury that kept him out of the previous game (3-12)
Walsall then added a penalty of their own to make the half time score 15-3 in favour if the visitors.
Tamworth made another injury substitution at the break this time in the front row Callum Bayliss being replaced after having his thumb bent back in a tackle.
Tamworth’s woes went from bad to worse as Walsall turned the screw scoring two more try’s effectively ending any chance Tamworth had of getting back into this fixture not helped by losing another front row player to injury and without another suitable replacement would see out the rest of the game reduced to fourteen men.
Walsall went even further ahead as they exploited the numerical advantage finding all sorts of space out wide to move into a more than comfortable 34-3 lead.
Then came Tamworth’s only bright spot on a difficult day as they finally got their reward for all their industry. As lock Liam Mcgreevy found debutant Liam Saayman in midfield he set off on a mazy run that for once the Walsall defence struggled to deal with finally being hauled down just short of the line he managed to find Jay Rosenbach with a sublime offload to score a nice consolation try for the hosts Wood adding the extra two points (10-34)
It would be Walsall though that rounded off the scoring with their sixth try of the day again making their one man advantage count dotting down in the corner to take a deserved win.
Nigel Hall said Walsall are a great side with a very very strong pack and we found them hard to deal with when we had a full compliment so when we went down to fourteen it was always going to be an uphill struggle they soon identified where the space was and exploited that.
Our lads showed great spirit and kept plugging away and the two youngsters combined to get us a great try. Liam Saayman had an excellent debut. We have to take this one on the chin I’m afraid put it behind us and move on to the next game. We have a week off now so hopefully we can mend a few broken bodies before we go to Uttoxeter.
Final Score
Tamworth 10 Walsall 39