A slutchy pitch on a bright spring afternoon greeted Eccles as they kicked off at Ford Lane, Didsbury on Saturday. The conditions clearly suited the men in blue and white hoops as they had their first effort to score, from a driving maul, held up within the opening minutes and they were soon ahead when Simpson initiated the next attack with a perfectly lobbed kick, from centre field, out to the left wing where Fortune pouched the ball on the run and dived into the wet corner to score, ruining his usually pristine appearance for the remainder of the game. 05" ECCLES TRY 0-5 (Fortune). Eccles were soon shifting through the gears. With Cox charging into the Toc H Twenty Two and Houghton quick to clear out the breakdown, a sweeping passing move across the pitch orchestrated by Simpson and Wright, resulted in a fine score in the opposite corner when the Eccles winger overpowered the Didsbury defendenders to drive into the corner. 10" ECCLES TRY 0-10 (Ackers-Johnson) Didsbury were struggling to restrain the pace of the Eccles attack and a penalty inside the host’s territory was dispatched to the left corner by Simpson. The resulting line out was well executed by the forwards and the Captain added to the score from the back of an unstoppable driving maul to put the visitors three tries up with just over quarter of an hour played. 16" ECCLES TRY 0-15 (Cox). Attacking with confidence and precision Eccles attempted to stretch the Toc H defence once again inside their 22, however, an expansive pass out to Fortune on the left wing did not reach its target and was knocked on. The loose ball was booted upfield by the Toc H defender and a kick and chase ensued. Cox reached the tumbling ball first but it squirmed from his grasp and with another hefty boot the ball was lofted into the corner of the Eccles in-goal where it was pounced upon by the Didsbury winger. 20" DIDSBURY TRY 7-15. Eccles, irritated at their carelessness, responded to this setback straight from the restart and through a combination of back’s craft and forward’s graft the visitors reasserted their authority within a few minutes with a score from the tighthead, to the left of the posts. 22” ECCLES TRY 7-22 (Campbell) Converted (Simpson). With momentum restored Eccles were now playing some of their best rugby. Crisp passing between Long, Simpson, Wright and Parkinson combined with industry from the Eccles front and back row kept possession inside the Didsbury 22. A decoy charge from Donovan towards the posts, unlocked the opportunity for his second row partner to receive possession in a deeper position, side step a tackle and power over the line to score in style. 33” ECCLES TRY 7-27 (Manzanares). For the remainder of the half Didsbury applied sustained pressure on a determined Eccles defence. Multiple penalties were awarded to the hosts inside the Eccles 22. A pair of line outs in the corner were met with resolute resistance and a yellow card was awarded to Spooner on 38" but the penalties and pressure could not be converted into points and the score remained unchanged at the interval. HT 7-27 Eccles deployed their bench early in the second half, with Aspinall for Reed at Loosehead, Booth for Cullen at Number 8, Talbot Dutton for Fortune on the wing. The pace of former colt made an immediate impact with big territory gains up the left flank with his first two opportunities. Eccles successfully pinned Didsbury inside their own half and when Spooner returned from the bin and Reed replaced Campbell at around 48”, they began to find the attacking rhythm of the first half, with Candland unlucky not to score when his kick ahead into the in-goal was a little too heavy to stay in play. Shortly after, an effective line break from Houghton through the middle had Toc H scrambling, the ball was moved swiftly out to the right where Ackers-Johnson further stretched the Didsbury defence with a burst of gas up the wing; possession was offloaded inside to Cox who was charging up in close support alongside Booth and the captain's efforts were rewarded when, despite being felled just short of the line, he was able to stretch out and score his second try of the game. 52” 7-34 ECCLES TRY (Cox). Converted (Simpson). The pitch deteriorated as the game progressed and both teams were toiling in the heavy conditions. With an hour played an Eccles line out catch and drive in the left corner was halted by Didsbury just short of the goal line. Long took the ball from Cox and found Simpson in space, to the left of the posts about 20m out with three defenders in front of him and two wingers outside him; the option to pass to Ackers-Johnson positioned on his shoulder was discounted in favour of a delightfully weighted chip kick out to the right where the Milky Bar Kid showed good skill in catching the ball coming over his left shoulder on the move as he sped into the right corner where he finished off the audacious move with an emphatic dive. 62” 7-41 ECCLES TRY (Talbot Dutton). Converted (Simpson). 80" DIDSBURY TRY 14-41. Right at the death, Didsbury scored a try in the corner which was converted with an excellent kick from out wide to reduce the deficit. Eccles march on with another convincing Bonus-Point win on the road to maintain their title challenge. Back to back promotions remains a possibility for Eccles who currently sit on top the Counties 1 table, 2 points above Widnes who still have a game in hand. Only one team will earn promotion to Level 6 and with neither faltering, it looks increasingly likely that the outcome will be determined in the last week of the season. Eccles remaining fixtures are 9/3 Heaton Moor (H), 16/3 Broughton Park (H), 23/3 Heaton Moor (A), 6/4 Tarleton (A). FT 14-41 Didsbury Toc H: Green, Talbot, Hearn, English, Godsell, Howarth, Madams, Nash; Vize, McGovern, Thompson, Leahy, Mawdsley, Crowe, Andrews. Replacements Roberts, Powell, Dallas. Eccles: Reed, Cox (c), Campbell, Manzanares, Donovan, Spooner, Houghton, Cullen; Long, Simpson, Ackers-Johnson, Candland, Wright, Fortune, Parkinson. Replacements Aspinall, Booth, Talbot-Dutton. Photos by Phil Saunders Hall.
