Dundee Dragons vs Eagles Wheelchair report

23/08/2022

Dundee Dragons 34
Sheffield Eagles 6

Saturday 20th August, 2pm Kick Off, Dundee & Angus College

Sheffield Eagles turned in their performance of the season north of the border when they met Dundee Dragons in the Wheelchair Rugby League Championship North. Determined to come away with an improved result from the 700 mile round trip, the Eagles showed steel not seen before the season in a tight and competitive game.
 
Dundee kept a clean sheet up to the half way mark, with tries from Gregor Anderson, a brace from John Willians and a further effort from David Birtles to put them into a 22-0 lead at the break, with Graeme Stewart kicking all but the first conversion, with all four tries requiring the home side to work hard to create space and find gaps amongst the Eagles dogged defensive efforts, with the Red and Golds showing improved defensive prowess in forcing errors from the opposition and soaking up pressure at the right times, a good example being David Butler’s effort to chase down Graeme Stewart’s break to prevent a further score and Vicky Brooks’ and Lottie Davis-Browne combining well to close gaps to keep the Dragons at bay.
 
The second half started like a dream for the Eagles, with Brooks playing the ball quickly out wide to find Butler who’s looping pass to Chris Brown found the Eagles centre field as Brown offloaded to Emma Pearson. A quick play the ball by Pearson found Butler who cut back with a short ball to her now in an onside position and a sublime offload on contact gave Chris Brown the space he needed to scythe through and lunge for the line to get the Eagles off the mark, with an easy conversion for Vicky Brooks following.
 
It took Anderson 10 minutes to hit back for the Dragons and a further 10 minutes for Graeme Stewart to add his name to the scoresheet, but the Dragons tries were punctuated by further solid defence and some probing attacking play by Sheffield, who used some clever kicks to build field position, turn the opposition and play the game in the opposition’s half as much as possible. Several assaults on the try line were survived by the Dragons and Butler opted to kick instead of going through a gap which would have further added to the Eagles tally, but despite the loss the Eagles were buoyant with the performance which was a huge improvement on the 4-88 defeat at home earlier in the season.
 
Dundee Dragons
David Birtles, John Willians, Gregor Anderson, Graeme Stewart, Murran MckKay. Interchanges: Jay Anderson, Alan Izzard, Julie Izzard,
Tries: Gregor Anderson (8, 52), John Willians (17, 29), David Birtles (35), Graeme Stewart (63)
Goals: Graeme Stewart 5/6
 
Sheffield Eagles
Emma Pearson, Vicky Brooks, David Butler, Shaun Orton, Lottie Davis-Browne. Interchanges: Chris Brown, Stacey Roulson
Tries: Chris Brown (43)
Goals: Vicky Brooks 1/1
 
Referees: Ollie Cruickshank & Alex Chandler