Sun 1 Dec 2019, 11:00
It was a frosty winter morning, and on what must have been one of the only playable pitches in Manchester, our boys showed what they can do as a whole team. Perhaps the most amazing statistic is that 13 different boys got their name on the scoresheet. We’ve had big wins before, but not with that level of performance from every single player.
5 Minutes in Harry ran over and Will converted to give us a 0-7 lead, unfortunately a few minutes later a contentious penalty try was awarded to Sedgley Park levelling things at 7 all. But immediately after the restart the forwards drove up the pitch setting Harry up to give us back the lead 7-12.A few minutes later Josh H had a try disallowed, but the ref appeared to relent and award Eccles the 5 points, increasing our lead to 7-17.
By this point we had showed complete domination of the lineout, winning ours and poaching theirs. This meant that when Sam’s penalty kick found touch on the 5m line we could just take the simple short line out to Harvey who strolled over. Will converting to make it 7-24. Sam repeated his kick 5 minutes later. This time Thomas caught, and passed down to Duncan, who always at his best in the last 5 yards, drove over taking us into the break at 7-29.
Josh H caught the restart kick and ran up the pitch, offloading in the tackle to George for a try, 7-34. A few minutes later Euan came on and almost immediately ran over with Will Converting for 7-41.
Then Jake retrieved the ball from a ruck, and Henry, seeing him move his back foot for a kick, started running forward. He passed Jake at full speed just as the ball left his foot and charged down to the exposed full back. He then tackled, released, stood and jackalled the fullback in what looked like a single fluid motion. Stepping around the rapidly arriving defenders he scored a superb individual try which Will converted for 7-48. It was a moment that would have graced a team at any level of the game, even the Sedgley Referee said afterwards it was probably the best try he’d ever seen in junior rugby,
50 minutes in Sedgley Park staged a brief rally with a try and penalty to make it 15-48. Sam caught the restart, and then gave a clever cross-field kick into the waiting arms of Ethan whose try was converted by Will for 15-55.
Sedgley caught and kicked the restart deep into our 22. Louis picked it up and ran the length of the pitch making it 15-60.
Sedgley then got an attacking lineout in our 22, Thomas poached and it was passed down the backs to Louis who ran it inside their 5m line before he was brought down. Will S with a pick and go from the ruck scored a try which Sam converted for 15-67.
In the last play Harry was tackled 10yds out but made an offload to Thomas, who ran over finishing the match 15-72.
A performance which makes us excited about the future of this team!
Match Captain: Harvey
Man of the Match: Henry – an amazing individual try.
Report by Andy Connell, Eccles RFC U16 Manager
Highlights
5’ 7-0 Try Henry Conv Will
12’ 7-7 Penalty TRY SP
14’ 7-12 TRY Harry
18’ 7-17 TRY Josh H
21’ 7-24 TRY Harvey Conv Will
32’ 7-29 TRY Duncan
35’ HT 7-29
36’ 7-34 TRY George
40’ 7-41 TRY Euan Conv Will
47’ 7-48 TRY Henry Conv Will
49’ 12-48 TRY SP
51’ 15-48 Penalty SP
55’ 15-55 TRY Ethan Conv Will
60’ 15-60 TRY Louis
64’ 15-67 TRY WillS Conv Sam
68’ 15-72 TRY Thomas
70’ FT 15-72.
