Eagles Women seal League 1 top spot

15/09/2022

The Eagles Women were in good spirits as they headed to their last league match of the season away at Featherstone Lionesses, hoping to consolidate their position at the top of the league. After a minutes silence at the beginning of the game, Eagles set up to kick off to the Lionesses.

They pinned the Lionesses up in their own thirty for the first set of six, with Green catching the kick on fifth on the halfway line, making a strong run, which was repeated by Wood, with a strong scoot from Thomas and a pass to Arnold to score within the first few minutes. Haglington converted successfully.

This followed a run of tries by the Eagles. The kick off was gathered cleanly by Mulvey, who made strong gains and received a penalty, which set Auger up to run through and score. The angle being too wide for Haglington to pick up the extras.

Another penalty, neatly positioned on the left wing a few minutes later allowed Eagles to put a set play into practice in the game. This was executed seamlessly to allow Evans to run through and score on the right wing. Again, the angle unfortunately being too wide for Haglington.

Green collected the ball off the kick off and made excellent gains down the pitch, lining up the offload in the tackle to Arnold running in support, who was similarly supported by Thomas who was able to collect the neatly timed offload to score just to the left of the sticks. Haglington picked up the spares.

Strong runs from Wood and Tiffin nearly got them over the line, but it was a wide pass out to Evans who was able to get the next points on the board on the right wing. Again, the angle being too wide for Haglington.

A few minutes later Eagles scored a real team try, with the attack taking them all the way to the left wing, over to the right wing again and then back to Lendon to score in the centre, converted by Haglington.

Shortly afterwards Arnold made great ground up the pitch, supported by the team who made excellent work of the space out to the right, with an inside ball from Haglington allowing Evans over the line again on the right wing. The angle being too wide again for the conversion.

What followed was several minutes of back and forth, with handling errors from both sides and multiple scrums. Featherstone Lionesses put pressure on the Eagles defence and it paid off with their full back making a break down the left wing. There was a strong chase down by the Eagles defence, but her speed was too much and she scored under the stick, their number five successfully picking up the extras.

This ended the first half 34-6 to the Eagles.

Eagles started the second half strong again. The comfortable lead allowing coaches Liam and Dan to try players in different positions. The Eagles took advantage of a scrum in the Lionesses thirty to push the attack. Thomas nearly scored, only to be pushed back and allowing Wood to then scoot and open the scoring in the second half. The distance was too great for Coates to gain the extra two.

There was again a few minutes of errors from both sides and repeated handovers. Eagles were awarded a penalty twenty metres out from the Lionesses try line which they took advantage of for Green to get over the line. Coates successfully converted.

There was another opportunity right from the kick off as Wood cleanly gathered the ball and broke the line. Lionesses fullback successfully stopped Wood, but strong support from Thomas allowed an offload out of the tackle and despite a strong chase down by Lionesses fullback Thomas ran through to score, allowing Coates to again pick up the spares.

A drop out from the Lionesses try line a few minutes later allowed Parker to gather the ball and break through a broken Lionesses defensive line to score. Coates wasn’t able to convert.

A strong attack by the Eagles pushed Featherstone back, with Parker breaking the line on halfway and running through to score on the right side of the pitch. Coates was unable to pick up the spares.

With only a few minutes left Parker caught the kick through from the Lionesses on their fifth and last tackle. With the ball caught within the Eagles own thirty Parker managed to break the line and run the rest of the length of the pitch to score, with Coates scoring the extra two.

This has put the Eagles at the top of the league outright for the end of the season, with their sights now set on the semi-final of the play offs.

Final score: 64-6 to the Eagles

Players of the Match

Head Coach: Tayler Coates

Assistant Coach: Danie Green

Captains Player: Beth Arnold

Vice Captains Player: Agnes Wood

Managers Player: Ellie Tiffin

Supporters Player: Tori Thomas

Tries

Arnold (2), Auger (5), Evans (9, 14, 21), Thomas (11, 55) Lendon (12), Wood (43), Green (53), Parker (64, 70, 72)

Ellie Tiffin, Danie Green, Phoebe Evans, Molly Haglington, Lisa Parker, Agnes Wood, Capucine Auger, Victoria Thomas, Jessica Sayles, Olivia Mulvey, Beth Arnold, Pete Lendon, Tayler Coates, Jenny Crofts, Dawn Woodcock, Sophie Anderton, Helen Teas, Chloe Askew, Nell Colclough

By Hannah Whales