Eagles soar to victory over Tigers

EPISKOPI Eagles got their Cyprus Rugby League programme off to a flying start when they beat Paphos Tigers 19-10 in a re-scheduled match at Happy Valley, Episkopi.

The first-half saw plenty of forward movement from each side with neitherr looking like scoring the first points.

In fact, it was just before half time before a breakthrough came. The Eagles moved well down their three-quarter line and Ceri Jones went over between the posts. Marcos Holden converted to make it 7-0. Almost immediately a second break saw Andy Davie go over with Holden again converting to make it 14-0 at half-time.

Tigers began the second-half with real determination and after a good passing movement George Agathocleous went over and Tony Thoma converted from an angle to reduce the score to 14-7.

The Eagles hooker got ‘sin-binned’ for kicking the ball away and from the resultant penalty; Tony Thoma converted to reduce the score to 14-10.

It meant that the scrums when the hooker was off were ‘uncontested’ (neither side could shove).

After an off-the-ball incident and a long consultation between a linesman and referee Johnny Stavrinou, Tigers lost ‘Deano’ to the sin-bin and Eagles took full advantage of his missing weight to push over in the corner with Dylan Read touching down for a try, which was unconverted, to make the final score 19-10.

David ‘Ging’ Caruthers, who is basically a newcomer to the game, gave a good performance for the Tigers who seemed to lack some cohesion and discipline. For Eagles it was revenge for the recent semi-final defeat by the Tigers in the Aya Niks 15’s Tournament.

(The game against Dhekelia, which was cancelled due to military commitments, has will now be played in December.)

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.