Lymm Eagles 26 – 31 Manchester Medics

Eagles Season on Life Support after Falling to Medics

Last week saw the Eagles playing two full matches in a single afternoon which was “A Game of 4 Halves”. Unfortunately, this Saturday’s match for the Eagles against Manchester University Medical School could almost be regarded as “A Game of One Half” as it was only in the second half that the Eagles managed to get their act together and get some points on the scoreboard.

Captain Olly Brown did his usual sterling job of putting together a competitive team of Eagles. His job was made a little easier by the return of several players who had been absent from recent games for various reasons, some of them actually valid. These included, Rick (Macca) McEvoy, George (Ringo) Harrison, Jim (The Badger) France and Martin (Henders) Henderson. However, his efforts were almost thwarted when the Lymm 2XV revealed they were struggling to raise a team having lost several players to duty with the 1XV. 6 Eagles players volunteered to move up to the 2XV, but even this support was insufficient to raise a full 2XV squad, so their match was conceded. Unfortunately, this had adverse consequences for the Eagles games due to the rules imposed by the League administrators. Effectively, if a more senior team concedes their game and a lower team plays their game, then the maximum points available to them for a win would be 2 points instead of the usual 4. Therefore, with the points difference at the top of the table being very close, this ruling would do the Eagles chances of winning the league this season no favours.

The visitors from Manchester Uni were the first to arrive on the pitch about 45 minutes before the 3.00pm kick off. When this scribe arrived to size up (spy on) the opposition, I thought that I had walked into a Lymm 1XV training session such was the intensity and vigour of the exercises and drills being carried out. Clearly these lads played regularly together and were a well organised unit. Their very youthful appearance did not go unnoticed by Eagles stalwart supporter, Stu Wraith, who commented rather loudly that he had several pairs of underpants older than most of their players.

The Eagles arrived on the pitch with almost minutes to spare and received their lecture from the Ref as to how he intended to conduct the game. Right from the kick off, it became very clear that although the Medics might not be able to match the intimidating physical size of the Lymm forwards, this was more than compensated for by the speed, agility and ball handling skills of their backs. Once they had the ball in their hands, they seemed to be able to glide effortlessly across the pitch from side to side looking for gaps in the Lymm defence to exploit. After only 4 minutes play, their winger managed to collect the ball spilled from a fumbled Lymm pass (the ball may have been a bit g-Reece-y) which allowed the Medic to sprint almost unchallenged over 50 metres to score in the corner. The conversion was missed (0 – 5).

Seemingly surprised by the speed and ferocity of the Medics attack, Lymm seemed to forget their usually effective game plan. This normally involved using their dominant forwards to secure the ball and rumble it forward in a series of controlled drives and manoeuvre it into a position where it could be released to their powerful backs to finish and score. Instead they now seemed to be adopting a “rabbit in the headlights” approach to the game, with the ball being passed like a hot potato between so many hands it was difficult to see which direction Lymm were actually heading in. Despite the best efforts of excellent ball carriers like Matt Grellier, Ben Stroud, George Harrison and Steve Williams, the pressure and excellent tackling from the medics was relentless and highly effective. Even when scrum half Kinna managed to prise the ball out of the pile up of bodies, the ball rarely got beyond the half back combination of father and son Alan and Jamie Reddecliff before one or the other was felled by a textbook ankle tackle which snuffed out further progress.

Liam (Sully) Sullivan at full back was kept busy fielding long kicks from the Medics flyhalf. In previous Eagles games, Sully has often been the fastest man on the pitch and has a good tally of tries in his bag. On this occasion though, with most of the opposition in their early 20s, several of them had equal pace and were able to quickly reduce the time and space Sully had to operate. At the same time, the Lymm wingers, Reece Forrest and Simon Beards had little opportunity to display their pace with ball in hand and spent most of their time supporting the full back and trying to repel sniping attacks out wide. It was not surprising therefore that they were in the next or so 20 minutes, they managed to run in two more excellent tries close to the posts so that the conversions were successful. The score then remained unchanged at (0 – 19) until the half time whistle.

Half Time: Lymm Eagles 0 – 19 Manchester Medics

The half time break gave Captain Olly time for a few choice words with all concerned. The panicky approach to the game had to stop immediately and everyone had to revert to the usual game plan and tactics which had proved so successful in the past. When Lymm had been able to retain the ball, Lymm had looked good. However, they just hadn’t kept hold of it enough Unfortunately, Mike Clarke had received a painful knock to his hip and was rested for the start of the second half. Other changes in the next quarter of the game would bring on Josh McKean on the wing, Henders as flanker, Marc O’Connor at number 8 and Jim France in the front row.

With Olly’s words ringing in their ears, the second half started but unfortunately, in a re-run of the opening few minutes of the first half, the Medics were able to quickly secure loose ball from a Lymm fumble and they needed no second invitation for their talented fly half to scamper in under the posts for a converted try (0 – 26). Things were not looking promising.

For some inexplicable reason, this score seemed to galvanise the Lymm team and suddenly they seemed to be able to do what they had been trying to do all afternoon – Play Rugby! Forwards were now able to secure good ball and drive it metres forward with Captain Olly leading the charge. Scrum half Kinna was scampering around the base of the rucks and mauls like a man possessed, wrong footing his opposite number and feeding the three-quarter line with accurate passes. The backs decided that they could actually run while holding a ball securely with one hand and still be able to hand off an opponent with the other.

Lymm rumbled up the right hand side of the pitch in good fashion and managed to get themselves into a position about 7 metres out where a short blindside pass to speeding winger Josh McKean gave him the opportunity to power has way through the grasping hands of the last 3 defenders for a well worked try. Rick McEvoy’s accurate boot added the extras (7 -26). However, there was some highly vocal disagreement from the opposition with the decision of the Lymm touch judge (me) to award the conversion. They seemed to feel that my eyesight, age, and parentage rendered my decision doubtful, especially as their man had signalled that the kick had been unsuccessful. I believe the expression was “blind old bast**d”. The referee however, accepted my decision because he said I looked honest.

Seemingly disappointed with the extra 2 points awarded to Lymm, the Medics went on the attack straight from the restart. Playing to their strengths, they got the ball out to their backs and once again made use of the full width of the pitch to probe for weaknesses. After only another couple of minutes play, they were rewarded with a good try following a line out in the corner. The distance proved too much for their kicker (7 – 31).

As the game approached the final quarter, Lymm clearly decided to throw everything they had into the game and the forwards took the game straight back up the middle of the pitch with Ben Stroud, Matt Grellier and Steve Williams working together to drive a wedge through the opposition. Coupled with the pure grunt provided from the front row combination of Olly Brown, Jim France, and Dave Coon the assembled pack drove tank like through the Medics defence over the tryline allowing Jim France to provide the welcome touchdown on 60 minutes. Unfortunately, the conversion was missed. (12 – 31).

With spirits raised by the well worked try, Lymm continued to put pressure on the Medics and play during the next 10 minutes was evenly balanced. If anything, the sheer physicality of the Lymm team seemed to be slowing the Medics down a touch. It definitely seemed a bit easier for this scribe to keep up with the game on the touchline. Certainly the Lymm backs were now able to run better lines without almost immediately being scythed down by a flying Medic tackle. With less than 5 minutes to go, fly half Alan Reddecliff, managed to swerve cleverly in between the two opposition centres and run in for a lovely individual try. With the clock running down, Alan, quickly drop kicked the conversion to bring the score to (19 – 31). The referee advised that there was 3 minutes of the match left. This may have provided the Medics with a false sense of security, as immediately from the restart the ball was gathered safely by the Lymm forwards and shipped straight along the line to Jamie Reddecliff in the centre who simply stepped into top gear, and used whatever he had left in his tank to put him into a strong, straight line drive for the line, shaking off any attempts at tackles and make a great score close enough to the posts for winger Simon Beards to make the conversion. (26 – 31). The referee’s whistle brought a close to the proceedings.

Full Time: Lymm Eagles 26 – 31 Manchester Medics

Unfortunately, a disappointing result for the Eagles, given their position in the league table and their hopes of winning the league and cup double. With the final score so close, the consequences of the mistakes made earlier in the first half and the somewhat disconnected team performance becomes all too evident. Almost made it this week but we need to stick to the game plan.

Many good performances all round, particularly from the Reddecliff pairing. However, there were also very dodgy decisions in all quarters. Above all no one’s heads went down, and we kept trying right to the end. For this scribe, special mention and MoM should go to Sully Sullivan for his great defence at full back when safely fielding the long kicks from deep. Without his safety net, things could have been a lot worse. All credit to Manchester Uni Medics for a great display of open rugby from a youthful and very talented team. Well done chaps. Most of the Eagles can’t even remember what it was like to be 40 years old never mind 20.

Next weekend, the Eagles meet Marple away in the Semi Final of the Cup which will be another tough battle. Keep your eyes on communications from Olly 3pm kick-off (TBC) and all are most welcome.

Tries: Josh McKean (52), Jim France (60), Alan Reddecliff (77), James Reddecliffe (79)

Conversions: Richard McEvoy (52), Alan Reddecliff (77), Simon Beards (79)

Team: 1) George Harrison 2) Olly Brown (C) 3) David Coon 4) Ben Stroud 5) Mike Clarke 6) Matt Grellier 7) Steve Williams 8) Max Ure 9) Chris Kinsey 10) Alan Reddecliff 11) Simon Beards 12) Jamie Reddecliff 13) Rick McEvoy 14) Reece Forrest 15) Liam Sullivan

Bench: 16) Josh McKean 17) Martin Henderson 18) Marc O’Connor 19) Jim France

Match Report: Pete & David Coon