Eagles 0 Upminster 33

It wasn’t to be as events conspired against the team to leave them with only 14 players at KO
Upminster, with a replacement very kindly gave a player to the Eagles so the game started with 15 a side, it wasn’t to finish that way
The Eagles had lost three players on Saturday morning including Charlie at fly half; Danie at centre and the pace man Jamie Illic. Louis Dix and Jordon were promoted to the first team, well done guys

The line up in the backs was unusual, Nathan Ambrose, at scrum half (what a great attitude this young man has)
Princey at FH then Tom Chaplin his first game for 4 years played at centre alongside Liam Rogers (MOM) Josh under 18’s hooker played on the wing and young Martin Smith at the full back, the other wing was the Upminster player
The game started well for the Eagles, the forwards with Gary Heed playing his first game for 4 years, was to play an excellent game as did the entire pack, they dominated the game for the first 20 minutes but failed to score, eventually Upminster found our weak spot and exploited it on two occasions, with the final score of 12-0 HT approached, Clapton pressurised the line and unfortunately Upminster lost a player. At HT the eagles agreed to give back the replacement to Upminster, they declined and both teams started the second half with 14 players

The second half saw Upminster score a number of tries, exploiting our lack of pace in the backs, not surprising really! However Liam Rogers tackle count was superb.
Gary Heed having taken a head injury 20 minutes into the second half, eventually had to leave the field with 10 minutes to go, the reaction of Upminster was immediate, they took off a player. Both sides finished the game with 13 men

The commitment of this side was superb once again the Crouchy, Jay Brown and Gary were up to the task. TC and Jack Harty in the second row played like back row forwards, and the Back Row of Matt Sweeney, another old Warhorse of Rob Shields and Andrew Green were to be admired for their efforts on the day

Eagles lost, Rugby won
Our thanks to Upminster for being such gentleman and well done to the Eagles who reciprocated