Knutsford 1st XV 5 – 36 Lymm Eagles

Eagles Work Hard Against Depleted Knutsford

Lymm Eagles made very heavy going of Saturday’s win against local neighbours Knutsford 1XV who struggled to field a full squad of players for the game. At the same time, with a fair number of Eagle’s regular squad missing due to supporting the 2XV, injuries (actual or alleged), shopping with the missus, lazy arse disease or other unacceptable excuses, Lymm were also set to start the game with a bare squad of 15 players. This improved when captain Olly Brown turned up with the kit, so they could get dressed and a couple of other latecomers arrived to bolster the squad. All credit to Colts players, Finn Henderson (son of absentee father Martin) and Louis Hind, (son of Will) for stepping up again to help the Eagles and to the more senior players, Steve Williams, Rob Worsfold and Marc O’Connor for agreeing to get their boots dirty. As Knutsford could only raise 13 men by the 3.00pm kick off, in accordance with the rules, Lymm dropped one player (from a host of immediate volunteers) from their starting lineup.

Immediately before the kick off, the referee spent quite a few minutes speaking to each team about his approach to the game and particularly how he would be judging and penalising high tackles and other offences. The Eagles duly noted the ref’s instructions. However, as soon as the game started, they promptly forgot everything he had said by conceding 4 penalties for high tackles in as many minutes, with Steve Williams being shown a Yellow Card for yet another one after only 5 minutes play. Not a great start, but at least it evened up the playing numbers for Knutsford.

This turn of events seemed to seriously disrupt the Eagles usually well-coordinated play for the next few minutes, with the ball being fumbled, dropped and bouncing loose with no-one seemingly concerned about picking it up. Not surprisingly a prowling Knutsford back, took immediate advantage by scooping up the ball at speed and heading straight for the Lymm line for a great try to open the score with an unconverted try after 11 minutes (5 – 0).

The Eagles realised that they were going to have to up their game and the accompanying tongue lashing from captain Brown, seemed to do the trick. Focussing on close support and safe passing along the line, about 10 minutes later the ball eventually reach the hands of flanker Finn Henderson, who, with a great turn of speed and a lovely jinking run outpaced the Knutsford defence to score close to the posts. Unfortunately, the kick from centre Tom Baker bounced off the posts. (5 – 5).

The score boosted Lymm’s confidence, with the forwards securing most of the loose ball to feed the backs. The longstanding half back combination of veterans Chris Kinsey and Alan Reddecliff were able to cleverly switch the ball from one side of the pitch to the other to try and wrong foot the Knutsford defence. Eventually after about 23 minutes, centre Tom Baker managed to shake off a couple of tackles in mid field and headed straight for the posts. Although he ran in and completely crossed the try line, he failed to spot the opposition scrum half hurtling in on his blind side. The ensuing tackle dislodged the ball from Tom’s grip and was not grounded. Clearly stung by this Tom was determined to make amends, and only a few minutes later he gathered the ball from the rear of a loose maul trundling slowly forward about 5 metres out from the Knutsford line and crashed over with an acrobatic dive to make sure of the grounding this time around. His accurate kick added the points from the conversion (5 – 12) at 25 minutes. Unfortunately shortly afterwards one of the Knutsford backs had to leave the field due to an ankle injury and with no replacement available, this further reduced their playing numbers.

Probably not surprisingly, Knutsford were now struggling to provide adequate defensive cover across the pitch and started to rely on long range kicks into the Lymm half to be chased down by their young, speedy backs. One of these kicks was well fielded by veteran Rob Worsfold, who was already travelling at some pace. His continued momentum allowed him to glide almost effortlessly past the outstretched arms of the last Knutsford defender for a great individual try close to the corner. The missed conversion brought the score to (5 – 17) and the whistle closing the first half followed a few minutes later.

Half Time: Knutsford 5 – 17 Lymm Eagles

During the interval, Knutsford had to rejig their players to make the best of their depleted numbers which resulted in a request for the scrummages to become uncontested to which Lymm had no objection. Accordingly, Lymm also decided to give their available replacements some game time and allow some of their more dominant forwards to be rested. This allowed winger Josh McKean and centres Marc O’Connor and Tom Graham to take to the field.

The second half started with Knutsford, perhaps not surprisingly, on the back foot.  However, despite their numerical advantage, Lymm still struggled to penetrate the ferocious Knutsford defence and credit must go to Knutsford for continuing to use long probing kicks into the Lymm half to force Lymm into a footrace to recover the ball. In all honesty, it was more by luck than skill that Lymm prevented Knutsford from converting these sniping attacks into scores. Knutsford doggedly hung on for the first 15 minutes of the second half before, Tom Baker managed to sell a brilliant dummy to his opposite number in midfield which opened the door for him to sprint 20 metres to the line to score a great self-converted try (5 – 24).

From the restart, replacement Tom Graham took the ball cleanly and with his fresh legs, launched into a rampaging solo run straight through the middle of the opposition, shaking off any attempts to put a hand on him and score right underneath the posts only a minute after the previous score. Tom Baker added the extras (5 – 31).

Knutsford heads were clearly going down and their sense of despondency was not helped when, in an almost carbon copy of his earlier try, winger Rob Worsfold fielded a high ball from deep in the Lymm half and proceeded to hammer down the wing, easily avoiding some last ditch attempts to take him into touch, to score in the corner. Centre Simon Beards made a good, but unsuccessful attempt, at the conversion bring the score to (5 – 36) after 60 minutes play.

Shortly after the restart a crunching encounter in midfield left another Knutsford player writhing on the floor, clearly in pain from a knee injury and forcing him to leave the field and further reducing the number of Knutsford players. After consulting with both captains, the referee decided that, taking the safety of players into consideration, the match could not continue with such depleted numbers. Therefore, he blew his whistle to signal the end of the match.

Full Time: Knutsford 5 – 36 Lymm Eagles

Unfortunately (at least from this scribe’s perspective) this was not a particularly good or entertaining game of rugby, but at least the result was another good win for a hard pressed Lymm Eagles side. Knutsford are a good side with plenty of potential in their young players but, in common with other clubs at this level, are clearly struggling with the player numbers. Lymm did well to be able to gather a competitive team from those available, but nevertheless played well below par and should have been able to put the score well beyond doubt much earlier in the game.

Credit must go to captain Olly Brown for his amazing work rate, his ability to motivate and marshal his troops and always leading by example from the front. All he needs is a “cat o’ nine tails” and an admiral’s hat for him to get the role of Captain Bligh in any remake of “Mutiny on the Bounty.” Well done, Olly, keep up the excellent work. You almost deserve to be MOTM.

Elsewhere, there were some strong performances. George (Ringo) Harrison and a returning Jim (The Badger) France helped keep the front row solid. As ever, Jez Ure was everywhere in the forwards and almost always first to the breakdowns. Apart from a rather disappointing first 15 minutes, all the backs turned in solid work with safe hands and good choices. I don’t think I saw Simon Beards drop a ball or miss a pass and Chris Kinsey continued to do his best to annoy everyone on the pitch. Rob Worsforld and Tom Baker did well to bag a pair of tries each, but for this Scribe, the MOTM this week should go to young Finn Henderson whose youthful exuberance, undoubted speed, all round playing skills and keenness to get stuck in when required, should be an example to us all. Well done, Finn.

Next weekend, the Eagles travel to meet Marple, currently holding 2^nd place in the league, which potentially could be one of the most challenging games this season.  Players please make yourselves available when Olly calls. 3pm kick-off (TBC) and all are most welcome.

Tries: Finn Henderson (20 min), Tom Baker (25, 55 min), Rob Worsfold (29, 58 min), Tom Graham (57 min)
Conversions: Tom Baker (29,55, 57 min)

Team: 1) George Harrison 2) Jim France 3) Olly Brown (C) 4) Jez Ure 5) Mike Clarke 6) Finn Henderson 7) Louis Hind 8) Steve Williams 9) Chris Kinsey 10) Alan Reddecliff 11) Ash Caffery 12) Tom Baker 13) Simon Beards 14) Rob Worsfold 15)

Bench: 16) Josh McKean 17) Marc O’Connor 18) Tom Graham

MatchReport: by Pete & David Coon