HEAD COACH NOTES Hello and welcome to everyone visiting Gorton Street today. The club has a full house of senior fixtures this weekend with our Men’s teams facing Leigh and Aldwinians on Saturday, and our Ladies entertaining Sunderland and our U18 Colts hosting Wigan on Sunday. The prospect of four cracking games of rugby against strong opposition, where we’ll have to be at our best to chalk up Ws on the board. The 1XVs will certainly be looking to return to winning ways today after recent poor form. Last week’s game at Glossop was suspended in the first half following a tackle (deemed worthy of a red by the referee) resulting in concussion and a neck injury to Matt Parkinson, who was taken by ambulance to hospital for assessment and later discharged. The outcome of that result is being discussed and we all wish Matt a speedy recovery. Our defeats against Bolton, De La Salle and Manchester however, were consistent in our inability to be creative enough or strong enough in the second half to seize control of close contests. In all three of those games we did not capitalise on the early points and pressure we accumulated. Furthermore, the players did not respond well to handling the pressure of the different interpretations of the laws by match officials, week by week. Both things we look to improve upon today as Eccles, after a positive start to the campaign, now find themselves mid-table with 4 wins and 6 losses. Our opponents Leigh, currently in 4th place, arrive in good form having recently secured a 10-10 draw at Bolton and a dominant 41-18 win against our Salford neighbours De La Salle last weekend. The 2XVs, also struggling to find good form this season, have the opportunity with a win to move up the table alongside their opponent Aldwinians 2s, who also enjoyed a thumping 73-21 victory over De La Salle last week. Good Luck to everyone this weekend and thank you for all your support. Sam Simpson, DoR / Head Coach , Eccles RFC
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