South Lancashire and Cheshire Division Two
Oswestry 31, Orrell 18
THE Eagles returned to Granville Park after two disappointing performances on the road.
The game got off to a lively start, with both sides showing attacking intent and good tackling but Orrell got the first points on the board with their fly-half landing a well-struck penalty after an infringement at the ruck by Oswestry.
Another three points came for Orrell before their prop was sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes after slowing the ball down with a try-scoring opportunity at hand for the home side.
But it was not until the visitors were restored to 15 men that the Eagles finally sparked to life, with good work from the forwards sucking in the Orrell defence, before the ball was spread wide by fly-half Dan Williams for returning number 8 Sam Wright to score in the corner, the difficult conversion missed by Williams.
The Eagles began the second half well, with good carries by the pack and Olly Wilford at the fore while captain Andrew Smith flattened a would-be tackler to cross the whitewash for a well deserved try.
This time, Williams made no mistake with the conversion.
Orrell then worked their way back into the game, making the most of any indiscipline by Oswestry with three fine penalty kicks, giving them the lead at 15-12, but good driving took Eagles over the opposition try line for Wright to score his second, the conversion missed.
Another superb kick by Williams exposed the space behind the Orrell defence and winger Jack Fox was the first to the ball, well supported by Chris Blythe and Nick Howland.
He picked up to outpace the defending full back and scored under the posts, converted by Williams.
However, the visitors then earned another penalty, duly kicked over by their fly-half to bring them within six points.
With several key players missing, their replacements put in a good performance and gave coach Gaz Barrett a possible selection headache.
Man of the match was Olly Wilford.
l This week, the Eagles travel to Marple, looking to end their miserable run of poor away performances.