ECCLES SENIOR COLTS Our 4th game of the season and the bare facts are 3 loses and one draw but its easy to put so much emphasis on winning and losing that we miss the full story. Our first game saw us travel to Wigan who had already had one game and good numbers in their squad. The final score of 53 points to 26 fails to tell the fact the Eccles Senior Colts finished strongly to score their tries. Belief in what we could do with a bare 15 players grew as the game went on. Our second game and again a squad of 15 we went down to Birkenhead 16 points to 12. The end of the game saw the team applying tremendous pressure and were unlucky not to gain another try. Our 3rd game and a cup match we were up against a well drilled team from Southport. A brave squad of 15 Eccles players battled on and never lost heart even when we went down to 14 following injury. Last Sunday our latest result saw us claw back from 28 points to 7 down at half time to draw 28 all away to Bury. A squad of 14 Eccles Colts against a confident Bury squad of 19 looked like a tall order at the start. The character, belief and the determination of every one of the colts showed just everything that is good about rugby. Teamwork, respect, enjoyment and discipline only partly tell the story. Endurance, determination overcoming the odds more accurately reflect what the team did. The performance was perfectly summed up by Martin Parkinson, ‘yesterday was a gloomy day with both Senior Teams losing. Today my heart has been lifted with the performance of 14 lads giving their all and refusing to be subdued. A touchline full of proud parents and quite rightly so. Absolute top performance and to misquote he bard ‘those who had feeble excuses will feel themselves small for not being there’. This is what it means to be Eccles. If you know someone who want to be part of this story, please invite them down. We have much to be proud of and this isn’t simply explained by win or loss. John Christey, Eccles RFC Senior Colts Coach
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