Culcheth Eagles played host to Woolston Rovers in this quarter final of the Warrington Alliance Cup and as expected Woolston came with the intention of ruffling a few feathers, their squad being reinforced with a handful of regular faces from the first team.
The match got off to a lively start with the visitors unable to take advantage of good field position, gifted to them by the over exuberance of their hosts. Eagles looked as if they would put the first points on the board as a great solo effort down the left wing from D.Rainford saw him knock on over the line under pressure from a chasing defence, 20 minutes in, Reynard broke the defence and with Rainford in support for the off load Eagles saw themselves take the lead. A short kick off saw Woolston regain the ball , the monsoon before kickoff saw many handling errors, thus neither team seemed to have complete control in attack but it was Woolston who hit back next with a converted try. Powerful running from Culcheth prop Dale looked to have put Eagles ahead again but it was deemed held up and a penalty given to the visitors.
The intensity continued in the second half seeing Woolston down to 12 men for laying on in the tackle, but it was Woolston that struck next with a leaping dive in the corner, Eagles could breath a sigh of relief , no try! Taking advantage of the extra man the home team split the defence with a breakaway solo try under the sticks by I Pirrie converted by Griffiths to put Culcheth 4pts ahead. An arm wrestle ensued until the experienced heads of Woolston took the game by the scruff of the neck and ran in 3 tries using strong running down the wing with excellent support, Culcheth never gave up but their fate was sealed.