Sat 22 Feb 2025, 14:15
Promotion this season has afforded Eccles the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with clubs we have not played for many years. Games between Eccles and Waterloo commenced in 1906 but following the First World War, Waterloo purchased the land that would become their Blundellsands home and thereafter, fortunes of the clubs diverged and meetings were rare. The last visit of Waterloo to Gorton Street was 41 years ago, in February 1984, when a crowd of 500 gathered to see a memorable 4th round Lancashire cup tie against a Waterloo team including internationals and county players who were more accustomed to playing the likes of Bath, Gloucester, Leicester, Sale and Pontypool. With no score at the interval, a cup upset was a prospect until the visitors claimed the honours with their second half performance, Eccles 0 Waterloo 15.
Earlier this season, the reverse fixture at Waterloo in September was a 28-24 close contest, with Eccles defeated but pushing hard until the final whistle. Since then, Waterloo have gone on to enjoy consistently good form keeping them at the top of the table, whilst Eccles, without a win since November, have continued to suffer from injuries and absences at the bottom of the table. Eccles needed a big improvement in performance to compete with the league leaders on Saturday, but once again made a disastrous start to the game, going down three tries in the opening minutes - a concerning, repeated theme of the past four fixtures - before eventually awakening out of a comatose state to play rugby.
The opening score came from the kick off with Waterloo pounding away in the middle and Eccles appearing to soak this up just inside their half without too much trouble, until a missed tackle opened the door and with good passing the visitors were quick to strike out wide and score in the corner. With a number of changes in the line up and a debut at Fullback, Eccles looked shaky and the visitors fed on this defensive hesitancy to score twice more in quick succession, the second try coming from a halfway line break from their Blindside, and the third coming from the restart with a strong run stopped just short of the line before the ball was offloaded to the Blindside to score between the sticks.
2’ 0-5 TRY WATERLOO.
4’ 0-12 TRY WATERLOO. CONV.
11’ 0-19 TRY WATERLOO. CONV.
With 11 minutes played, Eccles were on the ropes and had hardly touched the ball or left their half. At 16 minutes Eccles made their first meaningful foray into Waterloo territory when a strong scrum drove the visitors backwards, indicating an aspect of play where Eccles might find success.
For the next quarter of an hour, the match was contained to the middle of the park, with Eccles having a good share of possession but expending a lot of effort in their attempts to penetrate a disciplined Waterloo defensive line. Eccles suffered a further set back at 20 minutes when Blindside Ayanlaja-lowo, whose strong ball carrying had offered a promising source of a breakthrough, limped from the field to receive treatment. In an attempt to move play back into Eccles territory, Waterloo kicked deep but Bates was assured under the high ball and raced infield to find space and Ackers-Johnson on the opposite wing who continued the counter attack into the Waterloo half.
Eccles were growing in confidence and taking the game to Waterloo, with the forwards dominating the scrum. Ayanlaja-lowo returned to the field and a breakthrough came soon after when quick hands from Harrison at fullback put Sam Simpson through a gap, bursting into the Waterloo half at speed, the Eccles prop powered through the field into the 22 and charged for the line to score behind the posts. Waterloo responded straight from the restart, taking advantage of Eccles defensive frailty with a quick tap penalty to put their fullback through to score to the side of the posts just before the break.
35’ 7-19 TRY ECCLES (Simpson) CONV (Holland)
38’ 7-26 TRY WATERLOO. CONV.
HT 7-26
Strong words were exchanged at the interval and Eccles began the second half time playing at a much quicker tempo. Ayanlaja-Lowo smashed through the line and hard running from Candland carried the attack, firing him straight through the defence into the 22 where he offloaded inside to Jones who raced in to score between the posts. The visitors responded with three scores, in quick succession - the fullback crossing the line on the wing, a break by the centre to set up the second row and, as Eccles were attacking into the 22, the Waterloo number 8 intercepted a pass and charged away into the empty field in front of him before offloading to his supporting scrum-half who took the ball on and scored under the posts.
43’ 14-26 TRY ECCLES (Jones) CONV (Holland)
48’ 14-33 TRY WATERLOO. CONV.
52’ 14-40 TRY WATERLOO. CONV.
55’ 14-47 TRY WATERLOO. CONV.
Undeterred, Eccles introduced replacements and the injection of energy made an immediate impact. Good work by Bates on the wing, chasing down a kick resulted in a quick tap penalty by Jones to initiate a rapid attack into the Waterloo 22. Russell carried the momentum to within a meter of the line and a quick pick up at the ruck bought Eccles a third try. Waterloo responded straight from the restart with their own quick tap penalty to score an eighth try.
63’ 19-47 TRY ECCLES.
69’ 19-54 TRY WATERLOO.
With 11 minutes of play remaining the visitor’s were sitting on a comfortable lead. What happened next defies logic or explanation. Whether they detected complacency or fatigue in their opponents is hard to say but Eccles responded by doubling their efforts to play with a determination and urgency that Waterloo could not deal with and went on to score 4 tries. The igniting spark for this was another quick penalty tap to release Connor, making his second first team appearance from the bench at Loosehead, charging through the middle to set up a platform 10 meters from the line, where further persistence from the pack was finished by Tighthead Aitken powering over to score and secure a try bonus point for Eccles.
70’ 24-54 TRY ECCLES (Aitken).
Momentum was now with Eccles who were running the ball hard. A well measured kick over the top into the Waterloo 22 was chased down by Ackers-Johnson, leading to an Eccles quick tap penalty to set up Ayanlaja-Lowo, eager to bulldoze in. He was stopped short of the goal line but more quick thinking from Jones offered the ball up for Spooner, capping off a Captain’s performance, to score under the posts.
75’ 29-54 TRY ECCLES (Spooner). CONV (Bates).
Having discovered Waterloo Kryptonite, Eccles continued to play with relentless intensity and another quick tap penalty and strong support running from Spooner and Connor carried the attack through the middle, setting up Coop to power to the posts and reach out in the tackle to ground the ball over the line.
77’ 38-54 TRY ECCLES (Coop). CONV (Murphy).
Waterloo appeared to be spent and Eccles had found another gear. With an excellent break from deep Mercer outpaced the defence to score the final try of the day between the posts with Bates adding the extras.
79’ 45- 54 TRY ECCLES (Mercer) CONV (Bates)
FT 45-54
An entertaining game with 15 tries played in a great spirit with no cards and no injuries of note. The result keeps Waterloo at top of the Regional 2 table and keeps Eccles at the bottom. However, despite another 3-try starting handicap and a susceptability to leak a try from a restart straight after scoring one, the second half was a much improved, tenacious performance from Eccles, who never gave up. If Eccles can begin games with the intensity that they finished this one, they may yet secure the wins and points needed to survive.
Eccles team: 1 Sam Simpson #, 2 Jack Burdon, 3 James Aitken, 4 Martin Coop #, 5 Joe Wilkinson, 6 Damola Ayanlaja-Lowo #, 7 Harvey Russell #, 8 Nick Spooner #, 9 Llew Jones, 10 Danny Holland #, 11 Gavin Akers-Johnson, 12 Harry Candland # (VC), 13 Marcus Mercer, 14 Tom Bates, 15 Scott Harrison #. Replacements: 16 Rhys Connor, 17 Louis Evans 18 Harrison Murphy.
