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Reserves v Moruya
Eden 8 Moruya 56
May 27th 2012 by Dave Evelyn
The Eden Tigers reserves took on the highly fancied Moruya side in what ended up being a lopsided game. On the bright side the Tigers had a full bench for the first time this season which is encouraging. The game started disasterously for the tigers when Moruya's Adrian Andy took the ball on the kickoff and ran straight through the Eden side to score under the posts. Moruya scored their second after Billy Elliott burst through some ordinary defence and set up a 12-0 lead. Elliott scored again after Eden handling errors to extend the lead to 18-0.Eden managed to put together two mistake free sets to go on the attack and when the opportunity was presented Matt Evelyn took on the defence and cut through for a good try.Another dropped ball saw the sharks score, followed by another after a penalty to the home side, and at half time the score was 28-4.
The frustrating part of watching this match was that the eden side appeared to be able to match the opposition in individual skills and commitment, but a series of basic mistakes puts unnecessary pressure on the side. The Moruya reserve side is a good team and they took every opportunity presented to them, which was plenty.
Coach Corey Walker encouraged his side to hold possession and get to their kick. The second half saw an improved disciplined effort from the Tigers who controlled the ball better than they had in the fi8rst half. Matt Evelyn scooted through the defence for his and Eden's second try to bring the score to 28-8. A wealth of possession through Eden's inept handling saw the Moruya side run in several more tries to take the final score to 56-8.
For the Eden side none were better than hooker Matt Evelyn, with brother Andrew Evelyn also giving a big effort. Jacob "Thumbsy" Young was tragically stretchered off with knee ligament damage in his return match after a broken hand. The Bowes brothers Dennis and Nick both did good things, while new players Dan Bell and Ritchie tried hard. Elvis Tui continues to show good form while Jock Owen and Aaron Aldridge were also good. There was certainly no lack of effort by the Eden boys, but there was a lack of co-ordination and application to the game plan which will improve as the group gets more time training and playing together. We now have the nucleus of a stable side and this group will develop into a very competitive unit come finals time.
Tigger