Sizzling finale on a soggy day

Eagles 27 – 5 Chipstead

Juniors U16 • League • Sun 2nd May 10, 11:00AM

  As the season starts to close most sides are at the point that they are starting to wind down and looking forward to the long summer evenings with the pimms,  not so for the Eagles side.  Despite the match being in May the weather was not in the mood for playing ball and decided that a winters day would be better so the wind and rain started with earnest and looked set to dampen the spirits of both sides.  This was not to be with both the Eagles and Chipstead having had a good warm up and ready in the blocks for the opening whistle.  The Eagles started the game with a fast pace and stole the ball from opposition with the well placed kick by fly half Gamble,  the forwards were determined to show their dominance and demonstrated their rucking capability with a number of pick and goes.  The ball was shipped down the backs only to be held by the impressive defence of Chipstead,  the pressure could only be stood for a while and the Eagles moved the ball both sides of the park with the eventual result that a gap was given for the gas man Coslett to find the white line and take the opening score.  Despite a great effort the conversion was not realised.  The game was closely fought with Chipstead looking dangerous at any opportunity with a number of breaks getting within spitting distance of the dust to be held by some great last minute defence of the back three.  The set pieces of the scrums were a challenge for both sides with the front five fighting out corner to demonstrate their dominance with the additional pressure on the scrum half in getting the ball away fast or suffer the consequences of being caught and shown the colour of the grass and mud.  The backs of the the Eagles side were determined not to show the opposition backs any space and whenever the ball was moved they found themselves looking down the barrel of the defending side in their faces.  The Eagles were determined to show their dominance and this was rewarded with some great offloading in the tackle through six phases with the eventual score by the captain Lazarevic.  Chipstead were not going to take this lying down and retaliated with a deluged attack which was rewarded with a try.  Half time score was set at 10 - 5, which was the starting point to the talk on the second half strategy .  The start to the second half was played with the revised strategy,  which was rewarded with an offload from a pick and go to prop Young to get over the line.  The re-start was played with the same gusto and on each tackle the Eagles rucked out the opposition until they were within 5 m of the chalk.  At this point a bout of white line fever took over and every forward thought they would be able to make it over without the support,  the crowd were getting themselves into a frenzy with the punishing attacking which was being greatly defended by Chipstead.  The end was that the ref managed to see some imfringement and award a scrum to the attcking side.  The obvious pick and go from the base of the scrum was seen by the defending side and this then started a collection of rucks,  Young saw the opportunity and dived for the line with the reward of the additonal 5 points.  With the restart underway the forwards started to show their dominance and rather than keep the ball the use of the speed merchants in the backs was fully utilised with the defence being spread wide and far.  Chipstead maintained their defence and took each opportunity to counter attack only to be held within 10 m of the line,  the final minutes were passing and Chipstead were within the chalk of the Eagles with the clearance from the 22 which was then chased by No8 Whellams almost the full length of the pitch,  after a general scrap for the ball with the defence the ball found its way over the line with the reward of a try.  The final score was additionally rewarded with the conversion giving a final score of 27 - 5.  Coach Maycock said that this was the culmination of the training regime that has been used throughout the year and the passion shown by the players in the squad.  The squad were a very well rounded set of players and well positioned to take them into next season of U17,  what a great end to a season.