Lymm Eagles 33 – 5 Marple 1st XV

Eagles Maintain Winning Ways in New Year Opener Against Marple

Lymm Eagles continued their unbeaten season with a confidence boosting victory against Marple 1st team.

With many teams in this division struggling to raise sufficient players for matches and rearrangements due to bad weather, Lymm Eagles 3XV had not played a competitive match of rugby since 16th November last year. Lying second in the league, but with an unbeaten record and games in hand, the Eagles were keen get their boots back on and meet third place Marple for the first time this season. The recent bad weather had rendered many pitches unplayable, but Lymm were fortunate to be able to use their excellent floodlit AGP pitch, normally the preserve of their 1st XV.

Under a cold, grey, threatening sky, a very strong looking Marple side kicked off into to an expectant Eagles pack. Lymm’s experienced forwards repeatedly tried to drive the ball up the pitch towards the Marple line but were denied much progress by a well organised Marple defence. It was not until after 10 minutes play that Lymm managed to use a series of looping passes to get the ball out to centre Rick McEvoy who stormed over in the corner to open the score. His accurate boot also added the conversion points (7 – 0).

Play continued with both teams evenly matched for power and pace. Scrummages held firm and immovable with the Eagles regular front row of Olly Brown, Craig Capewell and Dave Coon. Despite valiant efforts, Lymm’s fast wingers Reece Forrest and Liam (Sully) Sullivan were denied scores by last ditch tackles from an equally rapid opposition. Flanker Matt Grellier made several exciting breaks from loose play, but further scores were denied by fumbled handling from cold hands and overambitious passes. Eventually flanker Kieran Williams managed to break out with a solo power drive from centre field to score from twenty metres out close to the posts. The conversion by McEvoy brought the score to 14 – 0.

Marple continued to threaten strongly, and play proceeded up and down the pitch at a frantic pace, probably helped by the firm footing provided by the AGP. Full back Rhys Jones displayed his acrobatic ball catching skills by fielding and returning, with interest, long range shots from Marple. Eventually, veteran fly-half Alan Reddecliff, launched one of his trademark, long distance accurate cross-field passes to be caught by flying winger Forrest, who touched down in the corner. The conversion was unfortunately missed. The remaining 5 minutes of the half were remarkable only in terms of the number of penalties awarded against Lymm for reasons which were not always apparent.

Half Time: Lymm Eagles 19 – 0 Marple 1st XV

A high ball from the restart, was immediately contested by the charging Lymm forwards, refreshed at half time by replacements Gav Woods and George “Ringo” Harrison at locks, Jim France in the back row and Jez Ure, replacing his son Max at No.8. The ball was secured and rapidly shipped out wide to waiting winger Liam “Sully” Sullivan who rocketed round the last 3 Marple players to make the score under the posts with under 2 minutes played. McEvoy added the conversion for 26 – 0.

Play for the next 10 minutes remained mainly in the forwards with the man on man contests becoming increasingly physical. Unfortunately Lymm veteran prop and Captain, Olly Brown, succumbed to a neck injury but was able to be replaced by the returning Dave Coon, to maintain a competitive scrum. To add to Lymm’s struggles, only 2 minutes later replacement lock, Mike Clarke was given a 10 minute rest with a yellow card for repeated penalty infringements. With their Captain injured and a man down, Lymm took their eye off the ball and after another 5 minutes play, allowed a strong forward drive from Marple to crash over, with only scrum half Kinsey in the way, to open their score with an unconverted try. (26 – 5).

With strong words of encouragement from a sidelined Captain Brown, Lymm deployed the last of their available replacements with Simon Beards at full back and Ben Stroud in the pack. With renewed vigour, Lymm picked up the pace and gradually worked the ball up the pitch through a series of hard fought drives and from a scrum  5 metres out, flanker Kieran Williams hassled the Marple scrum half to drop the ball over the line and number 8 Max Ure scored the simplest of try of the day. Another conversion from the accurate boot of Rick McEvoy brought the score to 33 – 5 where, despite the best efforts of a tiring Marple, it remained until the final whistle 10 minutes later.

Full Time: Lymm Eagles 33 – 5 Marple 1st XV

Lymm look forward to trying to maintain their unbeaten record next week with a trip to Wilmslow 2nd team, 2:15 kick off, all welcome.  The Eagles are also through to the quarter finals of the league cup and look forward to a push for a league and cup double.

Team: Olly Brown (Capt.) 2) Craig Capewell 3) David Coon  4) George Harrison 5) Mike Clarke 6) Matt Grellier 7) Kieran Williams 8) Max Ure 9) Chris Kinsey 10) Alan Reddecliff 11) Reece Forrest 12) Tom Baker 13) Rick McEvoy 14) Liam Sullivan 15) Rhys Jones REP 16) Simon Beards 17) Gav Woods 18) Jez Ure 19) Jim France 20) Ben Stroud

Tries: Rick McEvoy, Kieran Williams, Reece Forrest, Liam Sullivan, Max Ure

Conversions: Rick McEvoy (4)

Report by: Pete & David Coon