Eccles RFC

On a grey autumn afternoon, Eccles made the short journey to Stelfox Avenue to face Altrincham Kersal, who were unbeaten so far at home this season. Eccles, suffering a catalogue of injury absences, lined up with Sam Simpson making a return to the front row and homegrown forwards Wes Chiriseri and Joe Mountcastle making their first team debuts. Kersal kicked off with a deep boot into the oppostion 22. The Eccles defense successfully soaked up the pressure from a line-out and a 5m scrum, until a penalty was awarded in front of the posts to give the hosts an early lead. Following the restart, Eccles suffered a further set back, loosing centre Harry Candland who limped off the field to join the increasingly long casualty list.

Eccles responded, moving the ball with confidence and pace across the pitch, searching for gaps in the AK defence. Slick passing between Holland, Murphy, Speakman and Ackers-Johnson advanced a promising attack and good ground was made by Ayanlaja-lowo, relishing his new role at Blindside flanker. Eccles possession inside AK territory was momentarily lost with a knock on but the AK scrum was unsuccessful, pressure from Openside flanker Chiriseri on the scrum half  lead to some frenetic midfeild play, culminating in an excellent jackal turnover by Eaton to give Eccles a penalty, 10m inside the AK half with 10 minutes played. Speakman was accurate with his aim but the ball dropped just short under the cross bar. Eccles maintained the pressure on AK and a second breakdown penalty was kicked to the corner for an Eccles line out, where the ball was thrown accurately by Eaton to Chirseri at the back and popped down to Ayanlaja-Lowo who smashed through the defenders for an unstoppable score; converted by Speakman.   

Kersal were lifted by this score and following the restart the number 8 led the charge back into Eccles territory, where Ackers-Johnson was twice called upon to make fine tackles to stop a break through. The Eccles defensive line held firm under sustained pressure, with Chirseri, trapped and unable to move under a pile of bodies, somewhat harshly judged to be impeding play and sent to the bin just before the interval. Eccles regained possession inside their 22 and looked to break out at speed through Speakman and Ackers Johnson who was forced into touch inside Kersal territory, before play was brought back for an AK high tackle on Eccles and the match official brought the first half to a close.

Kersal recieved posession at the restart and began the second half with the intension of using their numercial advantage but lost the ball under pressure from some solid Eccles tackling. From the resulting Eccles scrum in the middle of the field, Jones found Holland who launched an attack with crisp passing across the pitch through the hands of Speakman and Ackers-Johnson and out to Fortune in space on the left wing, who had plenty to do from inside his own half, but evaded three tacklers and was uncatchable, grounding the ball to the left of the posts; converted by Speakman with a sweet swerving kick.

Eccles, now in the ascendancy, continued to force handling errors from Kersal, some of which were punished. Eccles gained further ground from a midfeild scrum and when Chiriseri returned to the pitch Eccles were on the edge of the Kersal 22,  increasing the pressure, leading to the Kersal centre offending at the ruck and being sent to the bin. Speakman stepped up to slot home the penalty to put Eccles in control. 

Eccles responded to this set back and succeeded in sustaining an attack against a determined Kersal defence, before loosing posession outside the 22. Following a maurading performance Simpson was replaced by Cunningham and as the game entered the final 10 minutes, Kersal looked to take control with a series of line-outs in the corner. Eccles were pinned to their goal line but their determined defence was unbreached and when Kersal lost possession, Chiriseri declined the opportunity to drop on the loose ball in favour of kicking it upfield. This was collected by the Kersal fullback who charged through the broken field before he was stopped short of the goal line by another superb tackle from Ackers-Johnson. As the two teams scrambled to reform their lines under the posts, a tackle was made on a Kersal attacker and despite being brought to ground and held, he appeared to reach forward with the ball to place it over the line. The contentious try was awarded, and converted, to the delight of the home support.