Brentwood U16s 7 Westcliff U16s 15

Brentwood washed away…

In weather that was probably worse than the infamous hailstones at Colchester last season, Brentwood, Westcliff and their brave (perhaps mad) supporters headed for the field in torrential rain and gale force winds.

Brentwood started the game playing into the wind. The ball was bouncing all over the place and handling was difficult, a game that really ought to suit the Brentwood forwards since they never usually trust the backs, even on the best days for running rugby. However the forwards was where the ball was lost for Westcliff’s first score. The ball was taken in and seemingly secured but Westcliff's strong counter rucking quickly turned it over. Two missed tackles later and Brentwood had conceded a soft try by their standards. The conversion was out wide and in the conditions the kicker had no chance, 5-0 to Westcliff.

Shortly after the restart Brentwood again managed to lose the ball and Westcliff again broke. Fortunately Paul stepped up from fullback to put in a try saving tackle. Despite this and the fact that it was glaring obvious that the ball was going one way and that was to the quick kid on the wing the Brentwood defence parted like the red sea and allowed the winger straight through for his second try. Not surprisingly the conversion again missed, 10-0 Westcliff.

Following the next restart Brentwood managed to retain the ball for a period and actually gain some territory. Some dents in the defence were made by Jake, Rob, Will and Sam Fry and Brentwood remained camped in the Westcliff 22 but the ball was turned over. Westcliff tried to clear for touch but Billy managed to get through to charge down, the ball bounced and Rob dived on it for the ‘try’. Except it wasn’t given as apparently Brentwood were offside. I can only assume that this must have been one of the few errors made during an otherwise an otherwise good refereeing performance since there is no way Billy could move quickly enough to be offside.

Half time came, 10-0 Westcliff.

The second half didn’t get any drier or indeed any better from a Brentwood point of view. Almost straight away and in spite of the fact that they were actually going backwards and sideways Westcliff managed to create an overlap and the winger, whose pace we were well and truly aware of by now, was in again. The conversion missed, 15-0 to Westcliff and, like the weather, things were starting to look bleak.

At 15-0 down Brentwood finally managed to start retaining a bit of possession and worked a good position from where Sam Fry got clean through the Westcliff defence and the forwards, notably Rob, carried the move on further until Brentwood were just short of the try line. Westcliff were forced into a penalty and in spite of the fact that the pre planned penalty move went horrendously wrong, Brentwood managed to get over the try line in the form of Rob for the score. Charlie drilled the conversion through, 15-7 to Westcliff.

It appeared Brentwood might have a faint glimmer of hope but it wasn’t to be, with the clock running down Westcliff played the conditions in a far more intelligent manner to close the game out by kicking for the corners and forcing Brentwood to play from their own half, final score Westcliff 15 Brentwood 7.

Lastly I would like to apologise if this report is wholly inaccurate since being the seasoned reporter I am I did in fact have my pencil to deal with the rain but I didn’t bank on my notepad disintegrating completely…