Lymm Eagles 57 – 7 University Liverpool Veterinarians

Determined Eagles Stampede Over Young Vets

On Saturday, Lymm Eagles were at home to face a strong challenge from another of Liverpool University’s youthful teams. The previous week they had battled in appalling conditions to produce a nail-biting victory over the Liverpool Medical School. This week’s opponents were from the School of Veterinary Science (Vets) who were rumoured to have a less sympathetic attitude to dealing with injured opponents by offering to have them put down rather than medically treated! During the warmup, it was evident that the opposition had all been manufactured to the same specification; tall, lean, and very fast indeed. With this scribe’s feeble vision, it was virtually impossible to differentiate between which ones were the backs and which ones the forwards!

Once again, Captain Olly Brown was pleased (more like astounded) to be able to raise a good squad of over 21 players with an excellent balance to provide replacements in all the key positions. Rick McEvoy, missing from many games this season, was able to make a welcome guest appearance at centre, and young colt, Alistair Broadbent (son of the legendary “Tucker Broadbent”) joined the Eagles for his first game. Also making welcome return appearances were experienced players, Matt Hill, Toby Phillips, Stu Norman and Tom Graham. The Liverpool Vets asked to put a limit of 20 players in the Eagles squad so impact player, Frazer Kinvig, sportingly offered to step down from this week’s squad having already put in a sterling shift for the Lymm Reapers the night before. Also making his nonplaying debut this week was the even younger Broadbent sibling, Daniel, who this scribe managed to persuade to run the line as part of his inauguration as a junior Eaglet (and he fell for it!).

A morning of heavy rain ensured that the surface of the pitch reached the sticky and heavy consistency much favoured by the Lymm forwards (Swamp Donkeys) and in the hope it would slow down the younger vets. Fortunately, by the time kick off arrived, the rain had eased to a mild drizzle, and the skies were brightening a little. From the outset it was clear that the Vets would opt to run the ball wide at every opportunity and try to circumvent the big Lymm lads in the centre of the pitch. However, the Lymm three-quarter line held rock solid with great displays of textbook tackling by Reddecliff, McEvoy and Phillips. A spilled pass from a tumbling Vet was passed through at least half a dozen Lymm hands, including a wonderfully subtle pass from 2nd row Jez Ure to finally release fellow lock forward Ben Stroud who set off on a great solo 30m run for an excellent score near the posts. Rick McEvoy safely added the conversion to bring the score to (7 – 0) after only 10minutes.

The Lymm forwards secured the ball from the restart and steadily moved the ball up the pitch in a series of short, powerful drives, mostly led by captain Brown and the thundering Craig “Viking” Capwell. Eventually, scrum half Fuller dummied his way round his opposite number to release the ball to the speeding Reddecliff who worked together with winger Finn Crow to wrong foot the opposition and with alternate passes and enable the youngster to score close to the posts. Macca’s accurate boot added the extra points for (14 – 0) after 14 minutes.

Only 3 minutes later, experienced centre Toby Phillips sold an excellent dummy pass in midfield which was so convincing that it sent both teams heading in the wrong direction and allowed him to scamper over for a lovely try under the posts which Macca easily converted (21 – 0).

With a scoring rate of over a point a minute, it was perhaps not surprising that Lymm dropped their guard slightly and started to lose a bit of focus and discipline. The referee was doing a good job but awarded two penalties in quick succession against the Lymm scrum for releasing their binding in the back row. This did not sit well with the forwards who made their feelings loudly known. Accordingly, the ref marched them 10 metres back for mouthing off. The next repeat offence cost Lymm another 10 metres and brought the Lymm posts within kicking for the Vets. Fortunately, the ball was kicked wide, but the referee cautioned Lymm that any further such offences could result in a card.

With half an hour played, Lymm settled down and managed to repel all the Vets attempts to break through their line. The scrum, which had been surprisingly docile up until this point, suddenly rumbled into life, shoving the much lighter Vets off the ball almost at will. This was much to the surprise of the Vets No 8, who minutes earlier was heard declaring “we’ve got them in the scrum, they don’t want to know”. Little did he know that the Lymm front row had not been pushing up to this point!!

Understandably, the Vets were keen not to concede any further points and continued to pile into the tackles even if it took 2 or 3 of them to haul down any of the rampaging Lymm front 5. As a guide,this scribe estimates that the combined weight of the Brown/Capewell/Coon Lymm front row, probably exceeded that of the entire Vets pack! Eventually the pressure began to tell, and No.8 Tom Graham quickly picked up the ball at the rear of a maul and put his head down for a no nonsense, 20m straight line drive for the line, shaking off 2 or three lacklustre efforts to stop him and touching down in the corner. The narrow angle and kicking distance defeated the conversion attempt. (26 – 0). The last few minutes to half time were peppered with repeat warnings from the ref that he was not interested in hearing the opinions of the players about real or perceived infringements.

Half Time: Lymm Eagles 26 – 0 Liverpool University Veterinarians

With a lead of 26 unanswered points and with clear domination in the forwards, captain Olly used the break to bring on all his replacements and rest some of his hardworking troops (including himself). Gareth Evans moved to the front row with Matt Hill in the second row and Jim “The Badger” France and Marc O’Connor as flankers. Stu Norman moved to full back to replace Liam Sullivan who moved to centre. Prop David Coon took over the captain’s armband in Olly’s absence.

Within 2 minutes of the restart, the almost unstoppable No.8, Tom Graham executed an almost exact replay of his score just before half time with another barnstorming 25m solo run straight for the line. The difficult conversion was missed to bring the score to (31 – 0). Play continued at a lower intensity in between the 22 metre lines for the next 10 minutes with both teams trying hard to minimise the number of errors and retain possession (although at this point, any scrums for knock on usually resulted in the Eagles winning the ball back in the scrum).

Amazingly, during this period the grey skies almost completely disappeared to be replaced with fluffy white clouds, vast areas of blue and a large golden sun not seen much since the start of the season. Unfortunately, this also led to further mutterings and moaning from both sides about being unable to see the ball in the lineouts or catch high balls due to the sun shining in their eyes – typical. However, young Alistair Broadbent, who was having a great game, took the opportunity to lamp the ball 50 metres down the pitch and hurtle after it. The ball was collected by a lone Vet at the back who was immediately tackled by the flying Broadbent. Unfortunately, and much to Alistair’s dismay, the referee judged that the tackle had been made without arms and would earn him 10 minutes off the pitch. The Vets took advantage of the disruption in the Lymm ranks to take a short, tap penalty, pass the ball out wide and avoid the speeding Sully to score a converted try under the posts on 55 minutes. (31 – 7).

Clearly stung by this surprise turn of events, the Lymm forwards continued their well-executed pick-up-and-go drives to work their way back up into the Vets half. Once again, the highly experienced Reddecliff acted as the lynch pin for the Lymm backs, switching the play from side to side across until a clever reverse pass to Sully, travelling at full lick, allowed him to glide over the line to score near the corner. The missed conversion brought the score to (36 – 7) with only a quarter of the match remaining.

Lymm continued to show their dominant edge both in the forwards and the backs. The forwards were securing excellent ball from most of the conflicts and the backs were showing some of the best inventive handling for many games. This encouraged Alan Reddecliff to use one of his trademark, long, Crossfield kicks which was expertly fielded by young Finn Crow, leaping salmon like close to the touch and try lines. Unfortunately, he was unfairly tackled on landing and quick thinking from the resultant short penalty allowed Tom Graham to collect the ball and drive over for his hat trick of tries. The conversion by Macca brought the score to (43 – 7) with 10 minutes remaining. By now the Vets were struggling to actively repel any of the attacks form Lymm. Only a couple of minutes later an excellent solo jinking run by Finn Crow a full 60 metres down the left-hand touchline looked an almost certain score. Unfortunately, the points were denied when Finn spilled the ball forward over the line as a result of a last-ditch tackle. Not to be out done, Lymm continued their relentless forward drives and a few minutes later a sniping McEvoy collected a low ball at almost ankle height and needed no invitation to simply saunter through the gap in the opposition to gain a self-converted try under the posts. (50 – 7). The pain for the opposition was nearly at an end with only a minute or two left on the clock, but not before Sully made a typical long distance solo run but was just denied by a tackle close to the line. The released ball was expertly picked up by the shadowing Graham, who only had a metre or two to travel to the line for his fourth try of the day. The conversion by Macca brought the final whistled and closed the game at (57 – 7).

Full Time: Lymm Eagles 57 – 7 Liverpool University Veterinarians

The match demonstrated some of the best co-ordinated team play by the Eagles in a very long time. Excellent work by the forwards in the both the scrums and, for a change, in the lineouts secured good ball for the backs who seemed to be able to make all the right choices and decisions. The hard work and determination were particularly impressive considering that several players had also played in the Lymm Reapers Veteran’s game the evening before which must have taken its toll on muscles and stamina. Excellent stuff guys. A good turnout of spectators this week as well with the total almost reaching double figures including visiting Club Royalty in the shape of Tony Halford who we have always suspected is a secret Eagles fan. Thank you for your support. A big thank you to the Liverpool University Vets for making the effort of coming over to Lymm and not giving up until the final whistle (and keeping the scrums contested, when it would have been easier to go uncontested!).

With so many good performances to choose from, it is almost impossible decide on Man of the Match. In the forwards, Craig Capewell, and Olly Brown were immense and gained a huge amount of ground all afternoon. Keiran Williams was always in the thick of it, disrupting rucks at will and performing some heroic last-ditch tackling, even with a pulled hamstring (is that the wording you wanted K-Pipe?). In the backs, Alan Reddecliff, who was the lead contender for MOTM last week, appeared to read the game with ease and change the direction of play almost at will and was well supported by Ash Caffrey and Sully out wide. It would also be unfair not to give full credit to Tom Graham, who scored four good tries most of which were solo drives over considerable distances and whose efforts never diminished all afternoon. However, for this scribe the Men of The Match Award this week should go jointly to Eagle newcomers, Alistair Broadbent in the forwards and Finn Crow in the backs for their non-stop efforts, youthful exuberance and clear sense of pleasure when running with a rugby ball in their hands. Excellent performances from both of them and they can expect to do very well in the future.

Next week the Eagles are home to Macclesfield 3XV. Please make yourselves available and keep up the excellent work. As ever, all welcome.

Tries: Ben Stroud (10), Finn Crow (14), Toby Phillips (17), Tom Graham (37), Tom Graham (42), Liam Sullivan (62), Tom Graham (68), Rick McEvoy (72), Tom Graham (78)

Conversions: Rick McEvoy (10), (14), (17), (68), (72), (78)

Team: 1) Olly Brown (C) 2) Craig Capewell 3) David Coon 4) Ben Stroud 5) Jez Ure 6) Alistair Broadbent 7) Kieran Williams 8) Tom Graham 9) Chris Fuller 10) Alan Reddecliff 11) Ash Caffrey 12) Toby Phillips 13) Rick McEvoy F14) Finn Crow 15) Liam Sullivan REP 16) Jim France 17) Gareth Evans 18) Matt Hill 19) Marc O’Connor 20) Stu Norman

Match Report: Pete & David Coon