Eastern Counties end season bottom of the pool after loss
EASTERN Countites suffered a 28-19 defeat by East Midlands in Division Two Pool Three of the Bill Beaumont County Championship, writes Russ Clarke.
The loss at Bury St Edmonds Rugby Club means that Eastern Counties ended the championship campaign without a win and bottom of the pool.
Eastern Counties started brightly, dominating the early exchanges, particularly up front. This dominance bared fruit with an opening try from Shaun Sprinddell, who powered over from short range.
Fly-half Corey Button added the extras.
East Midlands then found their feet, outpacing the home side scoring through fly-half Tommy Gray who exploited a gap on the right flank to score an unconverted try in the corner in the 13th minute.
The visitors were on the scoreboard again shortly after as sustained pressure in the Eastern Counties 22 allowed centre Harry Winch to slice through the defence to score. Ben Young added a conversion and then two penalties for a half-time lead of 18-7.
East Midlands further extended their lead to 25-7 when number eight Will Cardwell, who after a scrum infringement on the home five-metre line, took a quick tap and barged his way over close to the posts. Young added the conversion.
Eastern Counties then mounted a comeback firstly with a try from replacement hooker Isa Sloot who barged over after some great forward play which took the hosts in striking range.
Jake Alsop, who took over fly-half duties, slotted the conversion. Shortly after, Alsop seeing space out wide executed a perfectly weighted crossfield kick which was neatly plucked out of the sky by Elliot Foley before he dotted down in the corner. Alsop narrowly missed the conversion.
However despite that Eastern Counties were a converted try from victory at 25-19 with less than five minutes left on the clock.
A frantic few minutes followed with the home side attempting to chase the try, however, despite their best efforts they were unable to break out of their half and it was left to East Midlands to complete the scoring with a penalty.