The Sun rises in the east for EPPING Rugby

A good win for the Essex boys on their travels to East London in the John Alder cup under the powerhouse captaincy of TC.

The game started with both sides hitting the ball up hard and multiple turnovers making for a messy first 10. The club welcomed back Nicky Trower after a 3 month injury lay off and he slotted in well to an unaccustomed role at fly half.

Epping started to get the upper hand with the set piece looking good, dead eye Swalsey picking out the jumpers providing good clean ball for the backs. The scrum also held strong with Adam Power and Crouchy taking us forward for Ayres at 8 to do what he does best.
The club broke the deadlock with Nicky finding space after some good forward play, he also converted with a drop (where’s the T?) straight through the middle.

East London came back and kicked well for territory pushing us back into our own half. Numerous penalties kept the pressure on but the lads held firm with some big hits from Liam Rodgers and Scott Stalley. The game opened up at times with Dale Stalley and Toby Sweeney making some great runs. McPat had all but scored but got bundled into touch before he could put the ball down much to the delight of Deano!

We scored again and for the life of me I can’t remember who or how, sorry ! We missed the conversion, I know that.
Half time and we made a few changes, great to see Mr Procel return after a few months away to bolster the 2nd row and the gnarled Lee Garwood making only his 2nd appearance of the season. This gave the club more experience and East London never really looked like getting back into the game. Ayres made a break and smashed his way over for the 3rd try.

Harry Barker had come on at 10 and Nicky moved to 13, from a clean line out Harry dropped the ball perfectly over the onrushing defense and Nicky had his second try of the day.

The final try of the day came from the old stager Garwood, possibly surprising himself with his acceleration and step of the full back.