Sat 14 Sep 2024
With a 17-year gap in fixtures, the first away trip of the season offered promoted Eccles an opportunity to reacquaint itself with the South Cheshire club who achieved a 4th place finish in R2NW last season and further familiarise itself with the playing standards at Level 6.
Forced to assemble a new team following a catalogue of injuries, Eccles recalled Danny Holland at Fly-Half and gave starting line up debuts to Kristian Golding and Ross Hulbert, joining Jack Burdon, Llew Jones and Harry Murphy who all made promising League debuts last Saturday against Bowdon.
Eccles made a positive start in the warm sunshine at Vagrants Park, with a Luke Cullen tackle separating an Crewe & Nantwich player from his boots in the opening minutes. Eccles had a good share of possession but were unable to penetrate the host’s defensive line and the game remained in the middle of the pitch until a knock on gave Crewe & Nantwich a scrum on the left. Play was moved swiftly across the pitch allowing the winger space to make good yards on the right. A penalty at the breakdown inside the 22 temporarily halted the attack, Eccles lost focus, turned their backs to the ball and quick reactions from the Crewe & Nantwich Blindside resulted in the opening score. [06’ 7-0 C&N TRY. CONV.]
Eccles reacted to this early set back and for the next 10 minutes competed well in open play, with Booth and Thornton regularly breaking through with strong carries in attack, but straining to contend in the scrum or gain ground on the flanks where C&N consistently had an overlap in defence and attack. On 17’ Centre Wilkinson was shown a yellow card for a high tackle; 14-man Eccles stepped up their ruck speed and regained possession but were prevented from a quick counter attack with a high tackle on winger Ackers-Johnson which went unpunished. Eccles, aggrieved, were made to toil in attack and with sustained effort achieved a promising position inside C&N territory only for a defender to come in at the side of ruck to steal the ball. Eccles were slow to react to the change in possession and the flying C&N fullback was able to cut clean through the Eccles line from deep, passing inside to his supporting scrum half who dotted down to score; converted by the fullback [21’ 14-0 C&N TRY. CONV.]
Eccles went to pieces following the restart, with handling errors and missed tackles contributing to a general disconnected chaos that resulted in the Crewe & Nantwich Second Row easily outpacing the two Eccles props he found facing him on the left wing to score to the side of the posts. [26’ 21-0 C&N TRY. CONV.]
With Wilkinson returning from the bin, Eccles restarted the game with 15 men. Holland’s kick was caught by Campbell, setting the platform for a promising attacking foray with fullback Murphy making a strong penetrating run into the 22, but possession was lost at the breakdown and once again the C&N 15 counter attacked from deep, cutting through the broken field and passing inside to his supporting 9 to score an almost identical try; converted by the fullback [29’ 28-0 C&N TRY. CONV.]
Four tries to nil. All in all, a pretty disastrous opening 30 minutes for the visitors and yet it would be Eccles that would go on to dominate the scoring from this point for the next 50 minutes of the match. A determined fight back began straight from the restart, with Ackers-Johnson making a marauding break up the right wing. The Eccles ruck speed and reload was quicker and the ball was moved swiftly across the pitch to the left wing where Parkinson burst through the Crewe & Nantwich defence at speed and was unstoppable as he powered clean through 30m into the corner to score. [31’ 28-5 ECCLES TRY (Parkinson)]
Following the restart, another penalty was awarded against Eccles in front of the posts to give the hosts an opportunity to kick for points. [37’ 31-5] However, having found the C&N kryptonite Eccles responded immediately, winning the next scrum and playing with a sharper ruck speed to avoid the shenanigans. A strong carry from Spooner rapidly took play to within a meter of the goal line, where a quick pick and go in the corner resulted in a second try; the conversation missed, last play of the half. [39’ 31-10 ECCLES TRY (Booth)]
HT 31-10
Eccles began the second half playing expansively and at a pace that Crewe & Nantwich struggled to cope with. Wilkinson was replaced by Read at Centre and the Jones Holland Fortune axis whirred through the gears to release Ackers-Johnson on the right who burst through the gap, chipped the ball over the heads of the onrushing defence and raced into the in-goal to pounce at full stretch to ground a glorious try at 45’. Ruled out by the match official.
Undeterred, Eccles persevered with their attacking endeavour. Accurate passing kept possession and momentum inside the C&N territory as the visitors stretched the home team with increasing confidence. Fortune offloaded to Booth who broke through the line at speed, setting up the opportunity to release Ackers-Johnson who evaded the tackles out wide and powered to the line to score a fine try. [50’ 31-15 ECCLES TRY (Ackers-Johnson)]
Crewe & Nantwich did all they could to disrupt the flow of the Eccles attack with several unseen ruck infringements and decisions inside their 22 going in their favour. The hosts continued to have the edge in the scrum but with fresh legs (Manzanares replacing Booth and Thomas replacing Campbell) and Cullen moved to 8 Eccles improved their ball retention and distribution under pressure and Crewe & Nantwich were forced to defend for sustained periods. Eccles began to get the upper hand in the Line Out and an overthrow by C&N gave centres Fortune and Read the opportunity to strike and when Ackers-Johnson received the ball at pace on the wing there was no stopping him scoring. [65’ 31-22 ECCLES TRY (Ackers-Johnson) CONV (Parkinson)]
Despite the regular penalty breathers Crewe & Nantwich were blowing. The general direction of the game was towards their goal line and another Eccles try looked to be on the cards at 70’ when Murphy weaved through the defence into the 22 and Manzanares continued the charge and stretched to score but was short of the goal line and a penalty was awarded. At 75’ Eccles had their final chance to break through but knocked on giving the hosts the opportunity to exit their territory from the set piece. With a minute remaining Crewe & Nantwich were awarded a penalty in midfield and from this the number 13 found the necessary space to cut through and score in the corner as the last Play. [80’ 36-22 C&N TRY.]
FT 36-22
Eccles team: Ayrton Campbell, Kristian Golding, Jack Burdon, Nick Spooner, Ross Hulbert, Luke Cullen, Ryley Thornton, Henry Booth; Llew Jones, Danny Holland; Gavin Akers-Johnson, Chris Fortune, Joe Wilkinson, Will Parkinson, Harry Murphy. Replacements: Chris Thomas, Javi Manzanares, Byron Read.
Two games, Two defeats and a weekly changing line up enforced by injuries is not the start Eccles were looking for at level 6. However, there were very positive signs of progress with a determined second half performance from this new team. Next Saturday's home fixture against Douglas gives Eccles an opportunity to record their first victory of their campaign and move off the bottom of the R2NW table above the men from the Isle of Man.
With the 1XV on the road, Gorton Street was the venue for two solid home Wins. Eccles 2XV 43-24 v Birkenhead Park and Eccles 3XV 54-15 v Rossendale. The 4XV team game was sadly postponed due to the lack of a referee.
