Wilmslow 2nds 38 – 39 Lymm Eagles

Eagles Triumph in End of Season Nailbiter

Following their narrow 2-point loss at home to local rivals Wilmslow a month ago, the Eagles were keen to gain redress at the away fixture in their last game of the season on Saturday.  Previous fixtures  against Wilmslow have always been very competitive and generally good spirited. As this was also Wilmslow’s last game of the season, the prospects of a good game were high.

Captain Olly Brown was fortunate to be able to assemble a well-balanced squad with a good mixture of age, experience, agility, speed, power and stamina, although the exact distribution of these talents amongst the Eagles has never been very clear. As with last week’s game, the Eagles were able to secure the services of two father and son combinations to support the three-quarter line in the shape of Rob and Charlie Worsfold and Martin and Fin Henderson. The starting front row comprised the evergreen trio of Olly Brown, Craig Capewell and David Coon, (aka “The Boulder Brothers”) powered by the experienced  lock forwards Mike Clarke and Jez Ure. The Back Row was held together by Cronan “The Barbarian” Creagh with flankers Marc O’Connor and Sam Cooper, generally hanging around and up to no good.  With Worsfold junior at scrum half and his dad at fly half, newcomer Sam Cook made a welcome return from injury to inside centre with Chris Fuller changing his position from scrum half to the outside position. A very bronzed looking Ash Caffrey and Josh McKean readied themselves on the wings to impress the spectators and veteran Stu Norman took up his favourite rear guard position at full back.  With Jim ”The Badger” France, Prop Gareth Evans and all-rounder, Louis Hind available as replacements it looked like a formidable line up (well at least to this scribe, but then I am easily impressed).

Wilmslow chose to stay in the changing room until almost the stroke of 3.00pm with the referee on the centre spot tapping his foot and glancing at his watch. With a dry but soft pitch and no real rain forecast, the game kicked off with an immediate thundering clash as both sets of forwards set about trying to secure the ball. It was clear from the outset that both teams were reasonably familiar with each other’s style of play and had marked out the danger players on both sides.

Wilmslow kept the ball with their forwards and were able to recycle the ball well through a series of short drives. However, the tackling from Lymm was hard and accurate and this limited Wilmslow’s progress up the pitch. Eventually mistakes were made and the ball was recovered by Lymm and worked into the hands of Craig “The Viking” Capewell, who,  in his usual ferocious style, rampaged straight through the middle of the stunned Wilmslow defence to score close to the corner. Unfortunately, the conversion by Chris fuller was narrowly missed. (0 – 5) after 6 minutes.

Unfortunately, this early score appeared to overly boost Lymm’s confidence to the point that they seemed to feel that it was unnecessary to make any serious attempts to tackle the opposition and that simply touching their shirts would cause them to fall over and hopefully drop the ball.  Strangely enough, this tactic met with limited success, and it was not surprising that, only a few minutes later, Wilmslow were able to run in an easy try under the posts with a straightforward conversion  (7 – 5) after 11 minutes.

Fortunately, the loss of the lead provided a wakeup call for the Eagles who decided to get back to the process of tackling properly which certainly slowed down Wilmslow’s forward progress. Young scrum half Charlie Worsfold was playing with great skill and confidence at the rear of the scrums and set pieces, switching direction and wrong footing the opposition to great effect. Eventually Lymm were in possession close to the touchline near halfway, and in a change of tactic, an enterprising player produced an excellently weighted, long range, cross-field kick which was expertly fielded by centre Sam Cook who powered over the line to score close enough to the posts for Chris Fuller to convert without fuss. The identity of the kicker of the cross-field bomb was not positively confirmed due to the inattention and incompetence of the Lymm scribe but was almost certainly Rob Worsfold as all his positional kicking throughout the day was excellent. However, there were those who thought that it might have been Alan Reddecliff, who has trademarked that kick for the Eagles, and he may have sneaked unseen on to the pitch whilst recovering from a serious ear injury. Who knows? This made the score a more respectable (7 – 12) after 15 minutes. Obviously overjoyed at regaining the lead, the smile was soon wiped from the Eagles’ faces as almost from the restart Wilmslow, took advantage of their lull in concentration and ran in a quick unconverted try in the corner. What a surprise! (12 – 12) after 17 minutes.

For the next 10 minutes or so play settled down with both teams evenly matched and with the ball staying mainly between the 22 metre lines. Both teams were attempting similar tactics by  using the forwards to drive the ball up the pitch to get into a position where it could be release to the backs to score out wide. There were a few heart stopping breaks from both sides all of which were eventually snuffed out by good tackling particularly by Cook and Fuller in the centres and Caffrey and McKean on the wings. In a change of tactics, the Wilmslow fly half decided to kick the ball long over the heads of the Eagle’s line and away from the cover provided by their full back Stu Norman. As the ball bounced inexorably towards the Lymm line it was followed by a neck and neck chase by the Wilmslow fly half and full back Stu Norman. Stu got there first, but his dive to ground the ball was thwarted when it bounced fortuitously into the path of the Wilmslow player, who gratefully accepted the scoring opportunity. The Wilmslow kicker added the conversion points to bring the score to (19 – 12) after 30 minutes.

Stung by the unfairness of a random bouncing ball, Lymm redoubled their efforts and used their well drilled forwards to slowly drive the ball towards the Wilmslow line. Mike Clarke and Jez Ure backed by Cronan Creagh worked tirelessly to keep a good shape to the pack and provide forward momentum. Several good breaks from the rear of the rucks and mauls by flankers Marc O’Connor and Sam Cooper were unfortunately repelled by Wilmslow until a penalty was awarded to Lymm for diving over by Wilmslow. The offence was inside the 22-metre line and right in front of the posts, so captain Olly Brown took the sensible (but deeply unpopular with the spectators) decision to take the points on offer. The ball was well struck by Chris Fuller to slightly reduce the deficit to (19 – 15) after 35 minutes.

With only a few minutes left to the interval, the Eagles, once again, fell into the trap of taking their eye off the ball (and the opposition) and seemed to be fumbling and stumbling when trying to gain possession. Wilmslow, on the other hand, managed to keep hold of the ball and work their way gradually towards the scoreline. The referee decided Lymm had infringed in open play and awarded a scrum to Wilmslow. In a sight not often seen in an Eagles match, Wilmslow won the ball and, keeping it in the back row, managed to drive Lymm back over their won line and touch down for a well-deserved try. The conversion brought the score to (26 – 15) which remained unchanged up to the half-time break.

Half Time: Wilmslow 26 – 15 Lymm Eagles

Captain Olly used the interval to rest some of the players and bring on some of the remaining replacements. He had some harsh words for his troops, emphasising the need to maintain focus and discipline as it was clear that the Eagles were facing a very evenly matched team. Also the number of penalties being conceded by the Eagles was increasing and would need attention if more serious action by the referee was to be avoided.

Fortunately, the team seemed to take Olly’s words seriously and the Eagles stuck to their guns, with some great barging metres made by the “Boulder Brothers” in the front row. Eventually , scrum half Charlie Worsfold, dummied a pass and scampered round his opposite number before releasing to his dad. Rob drove forward through a gap and with further accurate passing through safe hands, the ball reached full back Stu Norman who had joined the line. With about 10 metres to go, Stu managed to dart cleverly between the last two Wilmslow defenders to touch down close to the posts. Chris Fuller added the conversion (26 – 22) after 47 minutes.

For the next 10 minutes both sides dug in and despite the strenuous efforts from both teams, neither gave any quarter and play remain resolutely in mid field. With such a high degree of pressure in a well-balanced competition it only took a small error and a fumbled pass by Lymm to be seized by a Wilmslow paceman and allow him to glide in for an unconverted try. (31 – 22) after 57 minutes.

With the score gap widening, Lymm tried everything the could to combine the power of their forwards with the speed of their backs and get the game back on a more even footing. Unfortunately another unforced error from Lymm inside the Wilmslow 22 provided their backs with a free ball which they quickly moved out to their speedy winger. He  thundered up the touchline at such a rate that even I had difficulty in keeping up with him. The winger had a completely clear 30m run to the line and a score seemed a virtual certainty. Therefore, I slowed down my pursuit to avoid an unnecessary cardiac arrest, when out of nowhere, a flying Charlie Worsfold launched himself at the Wilmslow ball carrier and drove him into touch on the 5-metre line. A definite try saver and undoubtedly the tackle of the day. Great jumping from Clarke and Ure won the ball for Lymm, and it was quickly moved out to the backs. Excellent running and a great interchange of passes between Worsfold, Cook and Fuller got the ball across and up the pitch into the Wilmslow 22. From there, another excellent bit of dodging and darting by the mercurial Charle Worsfold, put him over the tryline for a great score near the corner. Excellent stuff Charlie. The conversion by Fuller was narrowly missed. (31 – 27) after 62 minutes.

Captain Olly used the break in play to rearrange the forwards bringing on replacement prop Gareth Evans and Jim “The Badger” France and Fin Henderson as flankers. Louis Hind also made a welcome re-appearance on the wing ???????.  Not surprisingly, after the restart the pace of the game stepped up a gear if not two. Craig Capewell was back on form with his storming straight line, no messing drives, well supported by the fresh legs of Gareth Evans well positioned to take the offloads.  Jim France set about burrowing away in the rucks and mauls and kept popping up with ball in hand. As a very experienced scrum half Henders kept up his running commentary of what was going right, what was going wrong, what should be happening and what the weather was like all for the benefit of his team, the opposition, the referee and the spectators. I’m not entirely sure if anyone was listening.

Having regained possession, Lymm moved the ball inexorably into the Wilmslow half and a quick change of direction in the middle of the line managed to get the ball to a motoring Stu Norman who skirted round the last Wilmslow defender to get his second score of the day on 66 minutes. Unfortunately the angle and distance of the kick prevented Fuller getting the conversion. (31 – 32).

With their noses just in front for the first time since the early part of the first half, and with less than 15 minutes left on the clock, the Eagles got a renewed sense that a win was definitely within their grasp, Therefore they set about doing what they have done many times before at this stage of the game. That is to say, they forget about the game plan, or how to play rugby and seemed to do their best to help the opposition win the game !!!! For the next 10 minutes, Lymm really struggled to stem the tide of repeated attacks from Wilmslow and seemed content to offer them a series of fumbles, knock ons, dropped passes, infringements and other opportunities to score. Almost inevitably, on 76 minutes this became a self-fulfilled prophecy, and Wilmslow went over the line with a well worked try near enough the posts to make the conversion easy. (38 – 32) with 4 minutes left on my clock.

Strong words from captain Brown to the effect that “It’s not over until the whistle says it’s over”, on the trudge back to the restart seemed to do the trick. The whole team launched themselves in attack mode and put Wilmslow under immense pressure as they tried to get the ball out of their half. Lymm did well to keep them corralled between the halfway and their 22m line but without the ball a score would be impossible. With the clock almost on zero, Wilmslow chose the worst possible moment to gift Lymm a penalty close to their touchline about 40m out. Unfortunately, due to a repeat of his earlier incompetence and poor vision, this scribe is not sure what the Wilmslow infringement was. Who cares!

The referee confirmed that there would be time for a lineout but the Eagles, bravely chose to take a quick tap penalty. The ball went quickly through the hands to reach Sam Cook in midfield who sold the most outrageous dummy to wrong foot his opposite number. He sprinted straight through the resulting gap and sped towards the line. With the opposition closing on him, he managed a great offload to Stu Norman who had run almost half the pitch to join the line close to the touchline. Stu realised that the Eagles not only needed the score but also had to get the conversion for the win. He bravely chose to hand off his pursuer and skirt round the last tackler to get as close to the posts as possible. Despite his best efforts his touchdown left Chris Fuller with quite a challenging kick. The pressure did not seem to faze Chris in the slightest as he stepped up to the mark and did his job. The resultant cheer from the Eagles and their spectators was probably heard back at Crouchley Lane. The referee’s whistle signalled the end of the match. (38 – 39).

Full Time: Wilmslow 38 – 39 Lymm Eagles

An excellent result for the Eagles in a nail-biting end of the season finale. A very close-run game with lots of ups and downs, ins and outs and forwards and backs (geddit?) and it was nice to balance the books with Wilmslow following the Eagle’s defeat to them at home. All credit to Wilmslow for an extremely competitive game and one that was played in the best spirit of Rugby and sportsmanship. Thanks also to an excellent performance by the Referee who controlled the game well and adjudicated very fairly and with an even hand. The result itself does not do much to improve the Eagles position in the league finishing 7^th out of a field of 12. However, it did do a lot to help bolster the Eagle’s “never say die” spirit and their enjoyment of the best ball in hand game in the world, played with your mates who always have your back.

A lot of good performances this week. Mike Clarke, Jez Ure and Cronan Creagh appeared almost welded together as they powered forward throughout the game. The passing and positional interchange from Rob Worsfold, Sam Cook and Chris Fuller in the three-quarter line was inventive and great fun to watch. An amazing hat trick of tries from Stu Norman who showed that there is still hope for veteran players over the age of 55 (approx.).  A special award of “Captain of the Match of the Day”  must go to Olly Brown (finally!) for his excellent leadership, tireless work on and off the pitch and his motivational speeches, threats and abuse. Thanks Big Man.

A lot of candidates for Man of the Match this week, but in the  opinion of this scribe, the performance of young Charlie Worsfold, in only his second match for the Eagles, was exceptional including scoring a great individual try and making the best try stopping tackle of the game, without which the outcome of the match could have been very different. Well done, Charlie you have a great future in rugby.

No game next week, but the Lymm Reapers (Vets) are playing a curtain raiser match KO 1.00pm before the First 1XV game. All welcome to come along and support their efforts to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation. Have a word with Henders and you might get to play!  All welcome.

Tries: Craig Capewell (6), Sam Cook (15), Stuart Norman (47), (66), (80), Charlie Worsfold (62)

Penalties: Chris Fuller (35)

Conversions: Chris Fuller (15), (47), (80)

Team: 1) Olly Brown (C) 2) Craig Capewell 3) David Coon 4) Jez Ure 5) Mike Clarke  6)  Sam Cooper  7) Marc O’Connor 8) Cronan Creagh  9) Charlie Worsfold 10) Rob Worsfold 11) Ash Caffrey 12) Sam Cook 13) Chris Fuller  14) Josh McKean 15) Stuart Norman

Replacements: 16) Gareth Evans 17) Jim France  18) Louis Hind  19) Finn Henderson 20) Martin Henderson

Match Report: Pete & David Coon