Stockport 41 – 37 Lymm Eagles

Eagles Stumble at Close of Play

Lymm Eagles faced penultimate away game of the season against a strong Stockport side, one of the few teams in the league who, like Lymm, can put out three full senior teams. The Eagle’s previous home game against Stockport had been back in December and was one of the few Eagle’s games this scribe had been unable to attend this season. On that occasion, the visitors had managed a close win and so the Eagles were keen to redress the situation and make it honours even.

This week, Captain Olly Brown was fortunate that he received a good response to his call to arms for players this week. He was able to add a few old faces of returning or repaired Eagles to his squad which, with a few ex senior colts to bring the average age below 40, provided a well-balanced squad and a full bench of 5 replacements. The weather on journey to the far reaches of Bramhall in the leafy deep south of Stockport was pretty miserable being cold, with overcast skies and a bit of drizzle. This persisted during the on pitch warm and referee’s inspection, but nothing could have prepared either team for what happened in the first few minutes of the game after the referee blew his whistle.

As if signalled by the kick off, the skies completely darkened as if someone had turned the sun off, the wind began to howl and drive a curtain of hail and sleet across the pitch. With visibility greatly reduced, the Lymm forwards took the opportunity to drive the ball up the centre of the pitch to the Stockport 22 where the referee decided there had been some kind of infringement (I couldn’t see a thing) worthy of a penalty to Lymm almost straight in front of the posts. Young kicker, Oscar Newton, stepped up and despite the strong wind , opened the score with three points after only 2 minutes play (0 – 3). Unfortunately Lymm lost young winger Hind to a nasty looking ankle injury, but had a ready made replacement in Josh McKean, who threw himself into the action.

Stockport were clearly stung by both the driving hail and the early Lymm score and made a powerful and well-coordinated drive up field making good use of their very large, but very mobile, forwards. Lymm countered well, with some excellent tackling from the front row of Brown, Capewell and Higgins. Eventually, the ball was secured by scrum half Chris Fuller who got it out through the hands of the three-quarter line via Sam Cook and Jake Ashall and back inside the Stockport 22. Unfortunately a fumbled pass was seized by the Stockport flyhalf who somehow managed to duck, dodge and dive his way past all the Eagle’s attempts to bring him down and score close to the posts. The conversion made the score (7 – 3) after 10 minutes.

By now the sky had almost miraculously cleared and the pitch was now in bright sunshine. The Eagles were clearly sticking to their usual game plan of domination by the forwards to gain ground beyond halfway and then release the ball to the backs to get over the line. About 15 minutes in, this almost worked for Lymm when Oscar Newton, travelling at pace, collected the ball passing along the line and sprinted to within a few metres of the line before being hauled down. For some unknown reason (unfortunately the first of many in this particular match), the referee decided this was worthy of a penalty to Stockport which allowed them to regain all the hard-won ground from Lymm. Lymm continued to work hard, and their efforts were rewarded a few minutes later when Sam Cook received the ball in mid field and took the shortest route to the try line, straight through the middle of the opposition. His score under the posts was converted by Newton to put the Eagles in front (7- 10) at the end of the first quarter.

Unfortunately only a minute or two after the restart, Craig “Viking” Capewell was judged by the referee to have infringed (high tackle? tripped?) to an extent that it warranted a yellow card and an enforced 10-minute rest. As an experienced front row player, David Coon, took his place and another forward left the field instead. The game settled down for the next 10 minutes or so with neither team demonstrating any clear advantage. With around 30 minutes on clock, winger Ash Caffrey intercepted a speeding Stockport player flying down the wing with a great try saving tackle, but unfortunately this was judged by the referee to deserve another yellow card and Ash was dismissed from the field to join Craig on the sidelines. This was accompanied by much muttering and shaking of heads from his teammates. With two men down, the Eagles were hard pushed to cover all positions as Stockport moved the ball rapidly to and fro across the pitch looking for weaknesses in the Lymm defence. Eventually, almost on the stroke of half time, the continued pressure and accurate passing by Stockport allowed them to nip over close to the corner for an unconverted try. (12 – 10).

Half Time: Stockport 12 – 10 Lymm Eagles

A few harsh words from Captain Brown at half time with plenty of advice about keeping mouths shut and keeping opinions to oneself. The focus should be on playing the game and mounting an effective attack and defence rather than wasting time and energy commenting on how it is being managed.

Olly’s words obviously hit home as within a couple of minutes of the restart, the rampaging Lymm No.8, Matt Hill found himself 10 metres out from the Stockport line and needed no invitation to crash his way over for an early score. A well struck kick from Oscar Newton added the extra points (12 – 17).

What followed appeared to be a re-run of the Eagle’s performance in last week’s game against Wilmslow where scoring alternated between two sides with both teams demonstrating good attacks but relatively poor defence. This appeared to be confirmed when within only a few minutes of the Lymm score, Stockport ran in a relatively simple converted try with apparent ease (19 – 17).

Less than 2 minutes later winger Ash Caffrey ran onto an excellent pass in midfield and maintained his straight line drive down the wing for a good individual try. Unfortunately the strong wind denied the conversion to Oscar Newton. (19 – 22). To make matters worse, less than 2 minutes later, the Stockport flyhalf knocked the ball on in midfield. The loose ball was then attempted to be fly hacked forward by scrum half Chris Fuller to gain ground but unfortunately it struck the back of a retreating Stockport player about half a metre in front of him and rebounded over the heads of the advancing Lymm players. As the Lymm players stopped for the expected scrum, the retreating opposition player who had only retreated a couple of metres, reversed his direction, and managed to recover the ball now behind Lymm and stroll over for an easily converted try. (26 – 22). Cue much muttering, head shaking, wailing, and gnashing of Lymm teeth as the referee decided that half a metre was more than enough advantage for the ungrateful Lymm players.

The reversal of fortunes continued only 5 minutes later when powerful runner Sam Cook, once again gained good possession in the middle of the park and drove straight through the middle of the Stockport defence and cleared his path for a good 30 metre, high knee sprint to the line. His try was well converted by the trusty boot of Oscar Newton. (26 – 29) after 65 minutes.

There then followed a short break in play when the referee went to the team dugouts on the opposite touchline to enquire if anyone from Lymm or Stockport had been keeping score. Apparently, no one had, so he was referred by the players to the elderly gentleman with the white hair and the flag, running touch on the opposite side of the pitch (yours truly) as he often knew most of what was going on at least some of the time. I confirmed that I had the score at (26 -29) in my notebook. I then went back onto the pitch just before playing restated to make sure he was aware that I had the score at (26 – 29) in Lymm’s favour to avoid any possible confusion or misunderstanding. This was accepted as the correct score.

Unfortunately, I had not stopped my stopwatch during this period, so all following times are elapsed only. After the restart, both teams realised that there was only one score between them and so the massed ranks of the Lymm supporters were very pleased to see the Eagles attacking the game with renewed vigour and determination. Having used all the available replacements, Captain Olly brought some of the rested players back onto the field. This seemed to supercharge their efforts and the Lymm forwards definitely had the upper hand in the set scrums and lineouts. Eventually their relentless forward drives and controlled mauls allowed No.8 Matt Hill to break cleanly away and bulldoze his way over from about 10 metres out. The conversion was unfortunately missed. (26 -34) on 75 minutes.

Buoyed up by the score, a tiring Lymm seemed to take their eye off the ball and the game and only 2 minutes later Stockport managed to rumble over in the middle of the pitch for a converted try very much against the run of play. (33 – 34) on 77 minutes. Unfortunately only a few minutes later, fly half Sam Cook, who had had a great game all day, was judged to have high tackled his opposite number in mid field, received a yellow card and was consigned to the sidelines for what was likely to be the rest of the match. With the wind behind them Stockport had no trouble in taking the three points from the penalty kick with nothing left on my clock (36 – 34).

The restart was allowed and Lymm threw everything that had into securing the ball and getting it back up to the other end of the pitch. The forwards worked their socks off to keep possession of the ball and with short sniping runs managed to get the ball into a great position for a final drive to the line, when almost out of the blue they were awarded a penalty for an infringement (undisclosed). With very little (or no) time remaining Lymm opted for the kick which was duly slotted over by the boot of Newton (36 – 37).

Surprisingly, the referee signalled that there was time for a restart and the teams lined up. Stockport collected the ball and moved the ball up the pitch and out to the left wing where one of their large forwards gave the ball huge kick straight up the touchline where it wobbled and bobbled but stayed in play until it crossed the tryline and went dead. A nearby Lymm player indicated that the ball was dead, but the referee decided to run all the way up the pitch to assess the situation himself. Satisfied, he signalled for everyone to return to the point where the ball had been kicked (60m away) for a Lymm scrum.

Lymm won the ball but lost control of it in the backs. It was retrieved by Stockport who again, belted the ball as far downfield as possible and were fortunate for it to make touch just short of the 5m line. The lineout became a messy affair with the ball seemingly moving backwards and forwards between the teams of its own volition. Eventually it emerged on the Stockport side and an enterprising player quickly seized the opportunity to grab it and dart round the blindside of the maul and score in the corner. The conversion proved a bit to far but left the score at the final whistle (with 49 minutes elapsed play in the second half) at (41 – 37).

Full Time: Stockport 41 – 37 Lymm Eagles

Congratulations to Stockport for a good win, a great display of sportsmanship and very competitive match. Another disappointing, but close result for the Eagles and one in which it is difficult not to feel sympathetic towards their feelings about the game. They appeared to have done little wrong in terms of gameplay but seemed to have been dealt with quite severely for even minor infringements. Once again, they were penalised and lost metres of ground for dissent and verbal comments but the solution to that is certainly in their own hands and not the responsibility of the match officials.

For this scribe I think two people stand out as making an exceptional contribution to this week’s game, so my Men of the Match this week are Sam Cook and Jake Ashall. Both put in 100% effort throughout the game and made vital contributions in both attack and defence. Sam had the added bonus of getting two great tries. Well done guys.

A week off next week for Easter, but the Eagles return on the 11th April to play Glossop 1XV for the final home game this season .Please make yourselves available. All welcome.

Tries: Sam Cook (22), (64), Matt Hill (42), (75) Ash Caffrey (55)

Penalties: Oscar Newton (1), (79)

Conversions: Oscar Newton (22), (42), (64)

Team: 1) Olly Brown 2) Craig Capewell 3) Joe Higgins 4) Jez Ure 5) Ben Polec 6) Jake Ashall 7) Marc O’Connor 8) Matt Hill 9) Chris Fuller 10) Toby Phillips 11) Louis Hind 12) Sam Cook 13) Tom Baker 14) Ash Caffrey 15) Oscar Newton REP 16) George Harrison 17) Jim France 18) David Coon 19) Josh McKean

Match Report: Pete & David Coon