By David Rapinett
It was a gloriously sunny morning that welcomed Eccles RUFC’s visitors from across the city to Eccles RFC to play for the right to meet Ormskirk in the quarter finals of this years Blacksticks Plate competition.
Eccles started the game the better of the two sides with Ellis forcing himself over inside two minutes to open up the scoring, Harry popped the ball over with ease to leave Sedgley Park trailing 7 – 0.
This was followed up with three tries in a fifteen minute spell where all Sedgley could do was to kick off and defend Eccles constant, unwavering pressure. First Ed broke free to run one in unchallenged in to the corner
Then Rob used his blistering pace to leave everyone behind as he ran wide and down the touchline before scoring beneath the posts to leave a simple conversion for Harry.
Shea completed the fifteen minutes of devastation with a powerful crash through the Sedgley defensive lines to score Eccles fourth try inside twenty minutes. Harry completed the move with his third conversion of the half to all but seal the victory for Eccles
Ed brought the half to a close with his second try of the game; another powerful run that neither the Sedgley Forwards nor their Backs could cope with as he held off tackle after tackle before grounding the ball to extend the Eccles lead to 31 points
The Eccles lads were full of beans at half time; they had the game in the palm of their hands but needed to close it out.
The Sedgley coaches lifted the spirits of their lads with a rousing half time team talk which seemed to work wonders as our visitors started the second half in much better form than the first.
The first ten minutes of the second half were a closely fought affair with both sides competing with speed and aggression however it would be Eccles with their excellent and cohesive first phase ball play that would see Chea C chalk the first points of the second half on the board.
The points came from his incredible eighty metre weaving run from one side of the pitch to the other before powering down the byline to score under the posts. Harry converted with possibly his weakest kick of the game as the ball appeared to hobble over the posts.
Eccles now just needed two more points to complete a whitewash victory and secure their place in the quarter final, the point came curtesy of Brad who was having another outstanding game at Full Back, his blend of pace, aggression and fantastic ball handling had seen him play a pivotal role in the game and so it was no surprise when he capped his performance off with the match winning try.
Eccles are through to the Blacksticks Plate quarter final as the fixture is halted under the forty point spread rules of the competition.
