Lymm Eagles 35 – 55 Heaton Moor 2nds

Eagles Wings Receive a Clipping

Buoyed up from their good win the previous week against Glossop, Lymm Eagles were keen to be able to continue their winning ways against Heaton Moor 2XV, another team they had not played for many years.

Although regular Captain Olly Brown was unable to take to the field this week, he was still able to raise a very respectable squad from his cadre of Eagles regulars, irregulars, oddities and assorted ne’er-do-wells. Nick Ashton stepped in take Olly Brown’s usual position at Hooker to prop up the front row together with Craig (Viking) Capewell. Regular prop Dave Coon completed the trio and also took over the Captaincy. With big Mike Clarke absent, Ben Polec made an ideal replacement to control the back row at No.8 and Chris Kinsey made a welcome return to the Eagle’s nest in his role as probably the most annoying scrum half in the world. The rest of the three-quarter line comprised the experienced Alan Reddecliff ready to get the ball through the hands of Tom Graham and Simon Beards in the centres to Ash Caffrey and Josh McKeefe on the wings. Eagle’s top scorer (at the moment!), Rick McEvoy, took up his regular position of full back to patrol the rear of the game like a rabid Doberman and shout advice and abuse at players, spectators and match officials alike.  With 10 minutes to go before kick-off, the referee took the opportunity to provide each team with a very comprehensive kit inspection together with an extended and detailed seminar on how he intended to referee the match. In hindsight, Lymm might well have done better if they had paid more attention to his instructions.

Lymm kicked off and in an exact re-enaction of last week’s performance, Macca kicked the ball straight into touch. Once again, he explained this as a cunning plan to appear to underplay our real capabilities and falsely boost their confidence. However, it soon became clear that their confidence needed no boost, as they picked up the ball from the rear of the restart scrum and moved it swiftly through their backs to crash over near the corner and open the score with an unconverted try on 3 minutes (0 – 5).

Somewhat stunned by the pace and handling abilities of the opposition, Lymm had their work cut out to make progress up the pitch. Strong driving from the forwards secured good ball for the backs and some clever switch passes between Reddecliff, Graham and Beards managed to release Williams for a straight and strong run in to score close to the posts. McEvoy added the conversion to bring the score to (7 – 5) at 9 minutes. Unfortunately, in the process, Simon Beards took a heavy knock and badly twisted his knee which prevented him continuing.  Fortunately, Lymm were able to replace him with Liam “Sully” Sullivan, who probably had the fastest turn of speed on the field.

From the restart, Heaton kicked the ball high and deep into the Lymm 22. Unfortunately, the catch was badly handled at the back by Lymm and the ball bounced straight into the arms of a rampaging Heaton player, who cruised past a stunned Lymm side to score a great individual try.  Rather strangely, the well struck Heaton conversion attempt, was judged by both the Lymm and Heaton Touch Judges, to have been unsuccessful.  However, the referee positioned at a steep angle to the posts about 30m away, raised his arm and said that he had judged it to have been successful!!!! (7 – 12) at 11 minutes.

Lymm heads and eyes were starting to look down at their boots instead of at the opposition who were clearly very fit, very fast, well drilled and well trained. Lymm found it difficult to contain the Heaton backs who seemed to be able to jink and dance their way through the smallest of gaps. When Lymm were tackled with ball in hand, Heaton seemed to be able to get their hands on it, fairly and squarely before any support from Lymm arrived to close the play off. This resulted in an embarrassing number of penalties awarded against Lymm for holding on in the tackle. Accordingly, Heaton were able to run in another couple of converted tries in the next 10 minutes to bring the score to (7 – 31).

Despite the pressure Lymm regained their composure and the forwards regained control of the ball in mid field and drive it steadily straight up the middle of the pitch. Close to the Heaton 22, Kinner managed to dummy round his opposite number and release the ball to a flying Macca who covered the distance to the tryline untouched and provided a lovely self-converted try (14 – 31).

Unfortunately, a few minutes after the restart, new Eagle, Cro Creagh playing in the back row was rather harshly adjudged by the referee to have infringed the contact laws and was given a yellow card and 10 minutes rest in the Bin for his trouble. Once again, Heaton immediately seized to opportunity of playing with an extra man and within the next couple of minutes were able to run in a simple but, well worked, unconverted try (14 – 36) with 32 minutes played.

Lymm received the ball from the restart and resumed their tried and tested “up the jumper” technique to secure and drive the ball up field. Once again, the wily McEvoy positioned himself in just the right place in the rear to take the ball at speed from the centres and crash through the opposition for another self-converted try at 35 minutes (21 – 36).  From the restart, it looked like Lymm were trying to run down the clock to half time without conceding any further points. However, Heaton clearly had other ideas and seemed to simply turn up the wick on their fast players who with clever passing and accurate handling managed to run in another 5 points (21-41) on the stroke of half time.

Half Time: Lymm Eagles 21 – 41 Heaton Moor

During the half time team chat, it was clear that Lymm had been taken aback by speed, co-ordination and performance of the Heaton Moor side. The question was what Lymm could do to stem the tide of tries which Heaton looked capable of scoring.  The situation was not helped by the referee who seemed determined to ping Lymm for every perceived infringement however minor. With an obvious disparity in the number of penalties awarded against them, frustration began to creep into the Lymm performance, and it was not long before full back McEvoy was shown a yellow card for tackle judged to be high.

Lymm brought on their remaining players with young Oscar Stone making a less annoying alternative to the veteran Chris Kinsey. Marc O’Connor provided fresh legs and a renewed sense of urgency and rarely seen utility player Tom Coon made a welcome addition on field.

With Lymm a man down and carrying injured players, Heaton were able to put the pressure on and managed to run in two good, converted tries in quick succession in the first 20 minutes (21 – 55).  When they were back up to a full complement of players, Lymm entered the last quarter with renewed vigour and managed to compete more evenly with Heaton who, thankfully, seemed to have gone off the boil.  With less than 5 minutes remaining on the clock, Tom Coon made a great support dash down the wing from halfway to receive a last minute outside pass and squeak over in the corner for his first try in a couple of seasons. Macca’s accurate boot provided the extra points and made the scoreline a little more respectable.  With only a couple of minutes to go, the Lymm forwards secured to ball from the restart and rumbled inexorably up the pitch.  A very timely blindside pass from scrum half Stone released the ball to the backs who sprinted the last 30m to the line with a final pass to an unstoppable Macca to finish the match with a great, self-converted try (35 – 55).

Full Time: Lymm Eagles  35 – 55 Heaton Moor

Today’s game brought the Eagles down to earth with a bit of a bump.  The Lymm forwards who are used to usually dominating the open play and set pieces, met their probably strongest and most competitive opposition for a long time. This was not helped by them missing a few regular impact players, but this takes nothing away from Heaton Moor’s excellent performance. Similarly, the Lymm backs were playing catch up for most of the game and were fortunate to have been able to have the services of Richard McEvoy, Kieran Williams and Tom Coon to capitalise on the limited scoring opportunities they had. Another great performance with his boot from Macca who managed to convert all the tries scored for the second week running.  This together with his hat trick of tries gives him this scribe’s Man of the Match Award for this week, although mention must go to the sterling efforts of forwards Craig “Viking” Capewell, George “Ringo” Harrison and Jez “I’m Max’s Dad” Ure whose effort and performance throughout the game was amazing.

Next week the Eagles don’t have a game but face Northwich the following week, which also doubles as a League cup fixture. This gives them a bit of time to sort themselves into their most competitive squad and get back to their winning ways. Your support as ever will be most welcome.

Tries: K Williams, (9), R McEvoy (26, 35, 77), T Coon (75).

Conversions: R McEvoy (9. 26, 35, 75, 77)

Team: Nick Ashton 2) Craig Capewell 3) David Coon (C) 4) George Harrison 5) Jez Ure 6) Jim France 7) Kieran Wiliams 8) Ben Polec 9) Chris Kinsey 10) Alan Reddecliff 11) Ash Caffrey 12) Simon Beards 13) Tom Graham 14) Josh McKean 15) Richard McEvoy REP 16) Oscar Stone 17) Liam Sullivan 18) Cro Creagh 19) Marc O’Connor 20) Tom Coon

Match Report: Pete & David Coon