Northwich 2nds 12 – 47 Lymm Eagles

Eagles Continue Northerly Climb Up the League

Buoyed by their good win against Winnington a couple of weeks ago, Lymm Eagles turned in another storming performance against Northwich 2XV in an exciting and good spirited game at Moss Lane on Saturday.

After a week without a game, Captain Olly Brown was keen to make sure that he could still raise a good squad from his pool of players, so an early availability call went out, accompanied by the usual, demands, threats and blackmail. He had to cast his net much wider than usual to include recalling a few up-and-coming Senior Colts from university as well as tricking some older players into playing with promises of beer and Werther’s Originals.   After much pleading and many calls and messages, he was able to produce a well-balanced squad of 20 players.  Unfortunately, when confirming the match with the opposition, Northwich said that they would be playing with bare numbers and limited the number of substitutions to 3 players. Therefore, Olly had to ask a couple of guys to stand down but offered them places in the squad next time round.  Thanks to Gareth and Fin for having a week off!

Arriving at Moss Lane, the place was absolutely packed as Northwich RFC were hosting 3 games for their 1s, 2s and 3s including two visiting sides from the Isle of Man. This was accompanied by a huge number of junior Football games, Hockey matches and other sporting activities. Really nice to see the facilities being so well used, but an absolute nightmare to find somewhere to park. A bit like Crouchley Lane during Minis and Juniors training. I think some of the lads even considered driving round the corner to Winnington Park and climbing over the hedge between the two clubs!

Whilst the forwards had a familiar, gnarled, weatherworn look to them, the back line showed several changes from the Eagles last outing.  Maverick fly half Alan Reddecliff was missing in his regular role with a potentially serious  ACL injury, so was replaced for this match by 2XV and colts manager Toby Phillips (some feat for Toby, considering it sounds like the nursery rhyme “heads, shoulders, knees and toes” whenever Toby tells me about his many injuries).  Regular winger Ash Caffrey was also missing with a shoulder injury, but full back Liam “Sully” Sullivan was able to use his rugby league connections to recruit Sean Withington to the wing, although there was some bemusement when Sean turned out to be 6 foot 4 and 18st and more used to playing 2^nd row.  Finally, the call for a missing centre was answered by the mercurial and elusive Tom Graham at the last minute.  Recent recruit from the minis and juniors coaching team James Regan continued his introduction to Eagles life from the bench alongside Marc O’Connor and Louis Hind.

Lymm received the kick off in the face of a cold gusty wind, with a bit of drizzle and a threatening sky. The Northwich pack clearly had some very big, experienced and mobile, units who wasted no time in tearing into their Lymm opposite numbers. It did not take them long to make their way into the Lymm 22 and they were very adept at taking the ball into the tackle and quickly recycling it to the next receiver to drive forward. However, the found they were running into a human “brick” wall constructed by George “Ringo” Harrison, Craig “Viking” Capeswell, big Mike Clarke and Ben Stroud. Their tackling was immense and accurate, and Northwich made very little headway. Flanker Kieran Williams and No.8 Jez Ure made a formidable partnership and quickly snuffed out any attempts to break through the line. Despite this massive obstruction to progress, Northwich kept unsuccessfully repeating the same move. Eventually, Lymm skilfully managed to turn the ball over allowing wily scrum half Chris Fuller to quickly whip the ball down the line and into the hands of Tom Graham. Tom, backed by Toby Phillips and centre Tom Baker set off on an amazing run for almost two thirds of the pitch, sidestepping and swerving round the opposition to touch down for a great try close to the posts. Tom Baker, who fortunately had brought his kicking boots to this match, easily slotted the conversion to bring the score to (0 – 7) after only 5 minutes play.

It looked like Northwich were not expecting such a strong set of opposition forwards or such a fast and well-co-ordinated back line.  Northwich gathered the ball from Lymm error and for the next 10 or so minutes managed to retain possession in and around the Lymm 22. Once again, the opposition chose to keep to their chosen technique of trying to batter their way unsuccessfully through the Lymm pack and not use any of their backs who were screaming for the ball out wide.  In an almost repeat of their first score, Lymm managed a turnover and the ball was fed along the line to the waiting hands of Toby Philips who needed no invitation to sprint almost half the pitch and score under the posts. Another excellent kick from Bakes made the score (0 – 14) after 18 minutes.

Stung by another runaway try, Northwich finally decided to bring their backs more into the game which certainly upped the pace and width of the game. Clearance kicking from both sides lead to many more lineouts and this showed up some deficiencies in the Lymm forwards playbook. The Northwich line was definitely more co-ordinated with well-practiced set plays and they were able to make the best of both their own and Lymm’s throw ins. Lymm, it has to be said, were struggling at times to throw the ball straight (well it was a bit windy). Nevertheless, a spilled ball from Northwich was quickly pounced on by Lymm and, with a sense of déjà vu, finally reached Toby Philips outstretched hands allowing him to scamper in for his second try at 35 minutes. Bakes provided the extra points (0 – 21). Northwich quickly took the restart but chose to reverse the direction of the long kick to the opposite side of the pitch. This was expertly fielded almost on the touchline by waiting winger Josh Mckean who immediately set off on a blistering run straight down the line, shrugging off several half hearted attempts at tackles, to go over in the corner for a great solo try. Unfortunately, the distance and angle proved a bit too much for the conversion. (0 – 26) at the whistle for half time.

Half Time: Northwich 2nds 0 – 26 Lymm Eagles

A good half for Lymm, with excellent work from all the forwards particularly in defence.  Credit to the forwards as well for some devastating carries, especially from Captain Olly, who popped up everywhere and young Louis Hind, whose strong run and fend left the giant Northwich 2^nd row on his backside, much to the delight of the traveling Eagles supporters (the 6 of us make a lot of noise!!). The pep talk from Olly at the interval emphasised more of the same with good communication between everyone and close support for the runners. This was a hard physical game and Olly said he would continue to rotate players as far as possible with the available subs to rest tired legs and bodies.

From the restart it was clear that the Norwich players were not disheartened by the scoreline and they set off at a great rate of knots as they had in the first half. Unfortunately, only 6 minutes into the second half, their enthusiasm got the better of them and one of their backs received a yellow card for a deliberate knock on while intercepting a Lymm pass.

Lymm were definitely now in the ascendancy with the forwards dominating the loose and set plays (except for the lineouts which remained pretty dreadful). Unfortunately, with less than 10 minutes of the half played, one of the Northwich front row took a bad knock and with no trained replacement, they opted for uncontested scrums.

Lymm continued to press forward hard and the ball found its way to Tom Graham in midfield who set off on another of his trademark swerving runs, cleverly avoiding all attempts to slow him down as he made his way to the line for his second try of the day at 53 minutes. The conversion from Bakes increased the score to (0 – 33). From the restart the ball was fielded from deep by full back Liam (Sully) Sullivan, whose safe hands, electric pace and clever clearance kicks had proved invaluable throughout the match and had contributed in no small part to most of the days scores. Sully set off at his usual rapid speed and soon covered the ground into the opposition half. Accurate passing to the other pacemen quickly worked the ball towards the posts where a final offload to Tom Baker allowed him to add a good try to his string of conversion. The self-conversion brought the score to (0 – 40) at 55 mins.

Clearly happy with the flattering score, Lymm seemed to ease off the gas and step down a few gears. This was not the case with the Northwich side to were still very keen to get on the scoreboard. Only 3 minutes later one of their large lock forwards who had been leading most of their offensive plays throughout the game, picked up a loose ball about 10 metres out and made a screaming “red mist” solo drive for the line to get a well-deserved score at 58 mins. The difficult conversion increased their tally to (7 – 40).

There followed a passage of about 8 minutes play during which both teams seemed pretty evenly matched with no one giving or gaining much ground. However, it ended when Lymm received 2 yellow cards in quick succession. The first was to Tom Graham on 66 mins apparently for repeatedly holding onto the ball on the ground and the second 2 minutes later to newcomer James Regan for a high tackle although James (who admittedly has not played for quite a while) did think it was a bit harsh. In the clubhouse afterwards, when I spoke to the Referee about the incident, he did say that the last time a tackle that high had been legal was probably about 1966!!!

Despite the temporary two-man disadvantage, Lymm continued to hold firm and gradually made their way up field by a series of repeated “pick and go’s” from the back of the rucks and mauls. Eventually, Kieran Williams whose powerful drives and carries had been threatening Northwich throughout the match, shook a couple of defenders off his back and made a great solo drive for the line to score on 74 mins. Some commentators say this was at least 30m, although strong drink may have affected the accuracy of the measurements. The trusty boot of Tom Baker brought the score to (7 – 47) on 74 mins.

Clearly pleased with another score this close to full time Lymm unfortunately not only took their eyes off the ball but also off the opposition players, who took advantage of the fact that several Lymm players appeared to be engaged in discussions completely unrelated to the match, and so proceeded to saunter over the tryline for a score best described as “easy-peasey” After the failed conversion attempt the Referee blew the whistle for full time. (12 – 47).

Full Time: Northwich 2nds 12 – 47 Lymm Eagles

Another good win for the Eagles making it two on the trot. Let’s keep up the good work, but with no game next week and with what is sure to be a very hard game against an in-form Moore the week after, it is going to be vital that everyone makes themselves available and ready to play their part. Olly has a hard enough time organising things without the constant need to chase everyone to find out what they are doing. Let him know and, if you make a commitment, PLEASE STICK TO IT!

Many thanks to those players from other teams who made themselves available, especially Tom Graham and Toby Phillips for giving up their free weekend to help and it’s great to see the likes of Sean and James being welcomed into the Eagles nest.  Get learning the winners’ song lads, we want to hear it more often.

A few shouts for the man of the match.  It’s hard to overlook Tom and Toby for their try scoring efforts but I think their egos are already big enough.  Sully’s pace at full back once again rescued us from a lot of dangerous situations (although I still reckon I could have him over 10 metres) whilst in the forwards, it would be remiss to not mention the excellent all round performances of Craig Capewell and Kieran Williams.  Man of the match eventually went to George “Ringo” Harrison, who put in a real shift at his still relatively new position of prop and was a menace in both his ball carrying and tackling.  Well done Ringo.  A late attempt by Olly Brown and co-conspirator Ben Stroud to bribe this scribe and the team with a very expensive round of drinks at the Hartford Hall in exchange for MOTM was dismissed on a technicality.

Tries: Tom Graham (5, 53), Toby Philps (18, 35), Josh McKean (38), Tom Baker (55) Kieran Williams (74)

Conversions: Tom Baker (5,18, 35, 53, 55, 74)

Team: 1) George Harrison 2) Olly Brown (C) 3) David Coon (C) 4) Jez Ure 5) Mike Clarke 6) Kieran Williams 7) Craig Capewell 8) Ben Stroud 9) Chris Fuller 10) Toby Phillips 11) Sean Withington 12) Tom Baker 13) Tom Graham 14) Josh McKean 15) Liam Sullivan REP 16) Marc O’Connor 17) James Regan 18) Louis Hind

Report by: Pete & David Coon