Sun 1 Mar 2020
Eccles Ladies travelled to Sunderland hoping for a repeat performance of their last encounter where Eccles won overwhelmingly.
An early Sunderland try, created from the quick recycling from their rucks, seemed to indicate that the result may be very different from the last meeting. With Sunderland’s big forwards making life difficult in the scrum and around the rucks, it seemed that Eccles would struggle to compete. However, fantastic defending from Eccles with Karen, Jess and Mia leading the way, together with brilliant team attack, led to a try from Mikayla, who ran half the length of the pitch in open space. Play continued with the ball in no team’s hands for long, with great line speed and tackling in defence forcing errors, and brilliant attack with quick and accurate hands exploiting any small gap left by the opposing defence. Eccles made good use of their kicking game with Sheena, Mikayla and Sara dictating the areas of the pitch played in. However, with the ball in the opposition’s hands, their forwards slowly made their way closer to the try line overpowering the much smaller Eccles players and going over for another try shortly before the end of the first half.
HT: Sunderland Ladies 10 – 5 Eccles Ladies
At the start of the 2nd half, Eccles began with a great steal and footwork, but, overall seemed to favour Sunderland, with a dropped Eccles ball being picked up and one of their forwards sprinting half a pitch length for a try, followed by a conversion. It started to seem as though the coach trip north may have hindered the Eccles performance. However, the Eccles forwards responded quickly and helped secure the ball from a scrum, and hands out wide from the back of this scrum allowed Eccles to score a try of their own. An attacking Eccles unit became the story of the 2nd half, with skilled phases of play, accurate hands from Lowri and Rebecca and well-placed kicks again from Mikayla, Sheena and Sara ensuring play remained well into the Sunderland half. Another Eccles try followed shortly, again from the back of the scrum, with Mikayla going over for her 3rd try of the day. Eccles continued to make big hits in defence blocking all attacking routes for the opposition and displayed some amazing leg drive and footwork going forward, especially from Leah, Siobhan and Mollie Y. With tired opposition players very apparent, 2 final Eccles tries were scored in quick succession, both utilising the wide-open spaces left by the opposition defence, sealing a well-deserved victory for Eccles Ladies.
Eccles’ displayed some great rugby skill and intelligence, even if it came later in the game than planned, and this will hopefully boost their confidence going into their next game at home against Birkenhead Park Ladies.
FT: Sunderland Ladies 17 – 25 Eccles Ladies
Forward of the Match: Mollie Y
Back of the Match: Sara D
