East Devon Eagles were back in league action and traveled to Somerset Vikings and in spite of only having 16 players, and player/coach Tony Emmins injured following last week’s England Lionhearts game, came away with a superb 54 – 14 victory, thus maintaining their unbeaten league position.

 

Straight from the kick off, after being tackled, skipper Dave McCarthy played the ball to Nathan Budd, along the line to Luke Kent and Cadywould who passed outside to Jack Downie for him to go over in the far corner with Cadywould kicking the conversion.

 

The next 10 minutes saw strong Eagles defence prevent Vikings scoring but a long kick to touch saw Jonny Boltrukiewicz take a quick tap penalty to power drive over the line, the conversion fell wide.

 

On 20 minutes, a dummy pass by Cadywould saw him break through the gap and go over in the corner, kicking his own conversion.  5 minutes later from the half way line, Lawrence Giles jinked his way through the Vikings defence to touchdown under the posts, Cadywould adding the extras.

 

For the next 15 minutes the Eagles kept the Vikings at bay but just before half time, Jack Westlake played the ball to Cadywould and with a neat sidestep he passed the ball to Budd for him to cross over in the corner, but the difficult conversion missed, giving the Eagles a 26- 0 lead at the break.

 

The second half started with Vikings Tom Claydon and Chris Hurley scoring tries in 10 minutes, one of which was converted by Tom Halliday, but this shook the Eagles into action and an awesome power drive towards the line by Paul Flower saw the ball out to Lee Carey who touched down under the posts giving Cadywould an easy conversion kick.

 

From the re-start, Garry Hooper took the ball on, made distance and then offloaded to Jascha Saeck who made a weaving run in under the sticks, Cadywould adding the extras.  After good defensive work, Downie made the hard yards but was tackled and after Hooper played the ball, it passed along the line to Saeck for his second try wide out but the conversion hit the uprights.

 

The last 10 minutes of the game saw 2 more Eagles tries.  After the 4th tackle, Budd played the ball to McCarthy who passed to Cadywould and after confusing Vikings with a double dummy, he grounded the ball for his 2nd try of the game and after a Vikings kick ahead, the bounce was lucky for Downie who caught the ball and weaved his way back to the line, and not sure whether to pass onh to McCarthy for a “birthday try”, grounded the ball himself for his second try, Cadywould kicking the extras for both.

 

The last play of the game saw Vikings Mark Lees score but the conversion was unsuccessful giving the final score Eagles 54 Vikings 14.

 

Player coach Tony Emmins, from the sidelines, observed the Eagles strongest defensive performance so far this season, turning any Vikings forward movement into negative yards for them.  Extreme defence by Flower, Wilson and Man of the Match Kent and fantastic forward play from Carey, Saeck and Hooper contributed to the Eagles dominance of the game.

 

Next week sees the Eagles away again to Vikings in the South West Challenge Cup Semi Final.

 

Eagles Tries:  Downie (2) Boltrukiewicz, Cadywould (2) Giles, Budd, Carey, Saeck (2)
Conversions:  Cadywould (7)

 

Vikings Tries:  Claydon, Hurley, Lees
Conversions: Halliday (1)