Eagles soar over local rivals

Dorking 10 – 27 Eagles

Juniors U16 • League • Sun 21st Mar 10, 11:00AM

The much awaited League match between the under 16 teams of Effingham and Leatherhead (Eagles) and Dorking Rugby Clubs certainly lived up to pre-match expectations given the healthy rivalry between these two neighbouring clubs.  Weather conditions were dry and still, although the pitch was extremely muddy following four consecutive days of rain.

 

Dorking won the toss and opted for the kick-off into Eagles half .. where they stayed for almost the entire first half.  The muddy conditions made proper purchase with the ground difficult, both for attackers, and defenders alike.  Despite wave after wave of Dorking attack, Eagles, to their immense credit, absorbed the pressure, and defended very well.  It was close up and hard; a grinding first 20 minutes.  Eventually Eagles gave away a penalty in front of their posts, which Dorking converted - 3 - 0.

 

With only 5 minutes of the first half left to play, Dorking were awarded a penalty just outside Eagles 22.  The ball was popped to a big forward who took it up, running straight into Eagles prop George Bayman, who tackled hard.  A ruck ensued over the 2 guys and somewhere in this contact situation , the unfortunate Dorking lad had sadly broken his ankle.  Play was immediately stopped, and with an extended wait for an ambulance likely, the match was moved to the adjacent pitch.  

 

The final 5 minutes of the first half continued in much the same vein; a hard, grinding period of play, with no score added.

 

Half time score - Dorking 3, Eagles 0.

 

Half time saw Eagles make a few forced and tactical changes; Luke Blythe moved from fly-half to scrum-half, with Tim Parsons switching from centre to make his debut at fly-half, and George James coming in at centre.  And Jordan Crozier came on for Alex Stephens to bring in some fresh legs to the back row.

 

Early on in the half, Dorking infringed close to their own 22; Blythe took the penalty, straight and true to level things at 3 -3.

 

Dorking restarted, but it was Eagles who seized the next initiative.  From well within our 22, the ball was won from a set piece in the forwards, now working in their planned pods then, moving from Blythe to Parsons to James to Coslet to Evans to Joe Cox, wonderful handling down the threes.  Joe pinned his ears back, and ran.  He saw his opposition chasing, and looked inside for support, but he'd left his back-up behind and had no option but to keep running ... sprinting dangerously close to the touch line, he managed to outwit and outpace the defence, and ran the half pitch to score under the posts - a great try.  Blythe converted.  3-10.

 

The mood was up and Eagles were now the dominant team like Dorking were in the first half.  Another infringement and Blythe stepped up to kick  and took it well to put the visitors 3 - 13 ahead.

 

With only 15 minutes left to play, Eagles were keen for another score, taking it wide out right, where Adam Buck received ball and man together.  He limped off the field, and was replaced by the speedster, Benoit Bush.

 

With only 12 mintes left, and Coslet now injured, Buck was brought back on.  Again from with their own 22, the Eagles backs produced another special effort.  The ball went from Blythe to Parsons to James to Evans - who drew two in - before slipping it to Buck - who burst through, and engaged his sub-12 gears and switched on his afterburners, running the length of the pitch to score under the posts.  Again Blythe added the conversion.  3 - 20.

 

Dorking, to their credit, did not stop believing, and with spate of penalties against Eagles, charged up the pitch, eventually scoring, and converting - making it 10 -20.

 

In the last 5 minutes, Eagles came back into Dorking's half.  Eagles were awarded a penalty which kicked to touch at Dorking's 22.  The lineout was superb, from James Ben Tod to Lazarevic - up two feet higher than Dorking . From a catch and drive involving great work from 2nd rows Charles Lawrence and Robert Marsh and No 8 Jack Whellams, who all had great games,  the ball was driven over the gain line. With quick ball from the resulting ruck, the Eagles punched up channel 1 where there was a lovely running interchange between Parsons and Lazarevic, which saw the Eagles skipper go over for a superb try - well deserved for his effort through the match. This was again converted by Blythe to secure 5 out of 5 kicks and a personal best  for him 12 points in a game.

 

Final score - Dorking 10 - Eagles 27

 

The match was played in generally very good spirits, both sides competing hard, with no quarter asked or given.

 

Eagles team Manager David Lawrence said after the game, "We were delighted with the performance today from all the lads in this very important League game. Their focus and attitude was perfect and having worked hard on some specific tactics and game plan, it was nice to witness the positive results of their endeavours. The only sad note on the day was the broken ankle sustained by the Dorking lad and all the lads and coaching staff at Effingham wish him a full and speedy recovery."

 

After the match, both teams dressed smartly in their club ties, and sat down together for a fine sausage stew meal - and doubtless a few war stories from the game.  Tremendous to see the lads from both teams sharing some time together after a hard game - this is what rugby is all about.

 

The Eagles team was: George Bayman, James Tod, Alex Lincoln, Charles Lawrence, Rob Marsh, Alex Stephens , Ben Lazarevic - captain, Jack Whellams, Chris Dennehy, Luke Blythe, Joe Cox, Tim Parsons, David  Coslett, Adam Buck, Matt Evans, Benoit Bush , Conner Morris,  Dan Evans , George James, Jordan Crozier