Under 15 Tournament at Colchester

The last weekend of the season saw a festival at Colchester involving teams from across Essex, Kent, Middlesex, the East Midlands and the Eastern Counties. The Brentwood supporters turned out in their droves, with chairs, blankets and picnics galore, Dee’s picnic gaining her instant fame, as it was big enough to feed 5,000!

Brentwood were drawn in the blue pool along with Ipswich, Old Elthamians, Norwich and Cambridge and were duly sent packing to the furthest corner of the field to pitch 4. One of these days we’ll be playing on the pitch right next to the clubhouse… The other pools were the red pool which included hosts Colchester, Finchley, Woodbridge, Ampthill and North Walsham, the silver pool Saracens ‘A’, Diss, Southwold, Barking and Dustablians and finally the gold pool Saracens ‘B’, Westcliff, Luton, Wymondham and Sudbury. Games were 7 minutes each way with 10 points for a win, 5 for a draw and a point per try up to 5 tries, had I known this in advance I think I would have bought my calculator!

Brentwood’s first game was against Ipswich.

Brentwood 17 Ipswich 0

The boys came hurtling out of the blocks at an alarming pace given it was only quarter to 11 and they’re notoriously slow starters normally. The forwards were making dents in the Ipswich defence and a maul was set up. It was an impressive maul, going all the way to the try line with apparent ease before grinding to a halt when a try looked imminent.

The forwards however won the ball against the head in the scrum and it was given out to the backs. Sam Fry pulled the defence back in after a looping movement from Billy and the space was created out wide for Jordan to dart in at the corner. The conversion missed, 5-0 Brentwood and half time already.

The second half saw a try straight from the off, Billy kicked long, Sam Fry got hold of the full back and a maul was set up. The ball was turned and Sam Morgan broke from the maul making good ground and giving Chris McCarthy space to go over. Charlie kicked the conversion 12-0 Brentwood and the scoreboard again started to come in handy, Ross taking it upon himself to yell “Scoreboard!” at Jodie every 30 seconds to keep her busy!

Brentwood’s third try of the game came when James crashed through a tackle in the midfield and broke down the middle. He passed to the supporting Sam Morgan who sucked in some defenders and then got the ball out to the backs. The backs showed some slick handling to get the ball to Sam Fry with Joel on his shoulder creating a 2 on 1. Sam drew his man and passed to Joel who scorched in at the corner. The conversion missed, 17-0 Brentwood at full time and to the shock of myself and other regular supporters the word “fantastic” actually came out of Ian’s mouth without a hint of sarcasm or a not in front of it. A good start to the tournament.

The next game saw Old Elthamians defeat Norwich and then Brentwood were up again against Cambridge.

Brentwood 0 Cambridge 5

From good to dreadful in 50 minutes is the best way to describe the performance in this game. Brentwood didn’t come flying out of the blocks in this game, in fact they may as well have been in reverse. A combination of a dropped restart and no tackles saw Cambridge straight over for a try, not something you can afford to do in a game that’s only 14 minutes long. The conversion missed 5-0 Cambridge and the boys spent the remainder of the half trying to battle out of their own part of the field.

The second half wasn’t much brighter, Brentwood pressurised slightly but didn’t particularly look like scoring and by full time Ian’s jolly mood had dissolved, the hands were on the head and the stupids were flowing out of his mouth at a rate of around 1 stupid per 2 seconds.

The next two games in the pool saw Old Elthamians beat Ipswich and Cambridge beat Norwich, Brentwood’s next challenge was a formidable looking Old Elthamians side.

Brentwood 7 Old Elthamians 7

The start was much better than against Cambridge but still not up to the standards it was against Ipswich. James, Chris McCarthy and Carl were giving some go forward but despite Brentwood’s efforts the ball was turned over and suddenly it was left to Roland to make another one of those try saving tackles that he so rarely misses, he crunched the man and Brentwood’s defence scrambled back in time. The defence however was caught napping when Old Elthamians were awarded a penalty and the boys ambled back towards where they should be positioned. The penalty was tapped quickly, Brentwood were all over the place and Old Elthamians probably could have walked the try in. The conversion was good too, 7-0 Old Elthamians. Buoyed by their try Old Elthamians launched another attack straight from the restart and again it was left to Roland to save the day, which fortunately he did. Shortly after it was half time.

The second half saw Brentwood pushing and pushing for a score of their own. They managed to pressurise Old Elthamians into running with the ball very close to their own try line and when it went loose Sam Fry pounced on it. James took it in further and a penalty was awarded in Brentwood’s favour. From a tap and go Rob crashed over, Charlie nailed the conversion despite comments from the boys on the touchline that he was a northerner so he’d probably miss…I’m not sure if they’re assuming he’s northern because of playing league or if he actually is but I’ve still yet to work out why this might affect his kicking…7 all.

Old Elthamians replied by putting the pressure back on but William was on hand to smash an Old Elthamians player into touch as he broke which signalled the end of the game, William shouting “three cheers for Old….sorry what’s your name mate?”

The next two games saw Ipswich beat Norwich and Cambridge beat Old Elthamians which lead to many “Becky where does this leave us?” and following frying my brain with mental maths it was deduced that we’d have to win with 5 tries to secure second spot. In 14 minutes that was very unlikely to happen and of course before the tries Brentwood had to win first…

Brentwood 0 Norwich 0

Admittedly all I wrote for this one was rubbish, which I guess, sums up Brentwood’s performance quite nicely.

Finishing 3^rd in the pool behind Old Elthamians and Cambridge put Brentwood in the Shield ‘A’ final against 3^rd place from the red pool who were Ampthill. A short break saw the alcoholic parents sneak off to the bar, the boys play some form of a game which involved kicking the rugby ball at each other, well the boys minus Chris McCarthy who could be found near the pick ‘n’ mix and myself and Jodie decided to set off and find the England Under 20 player who was lurking. He wasn’t that great looking in case you care.

Brentwood 5 Ampthill 5

Brentwood started the semi-final well enough but butchered an overlap for what seems like the billionth time this season. A concerted amount of pressure finally paid off, from a ruck William picked up and passed to Jordan who flipped the ball on to Sam Morgan who barrelled over for the try. The conversion missed, 5-0 Brentwood and Jodie had to prise the scoreboard off Elliot who was happily doodling away on it.

After half time the boys fell asleep. Somehow they managed to keep just preventing the try until right at the death when Ampthill went over. The conversion would knock Brentwood out but fortunately it missed and the full time whistle went. Full time? But it was a draw. Consulting the rules of the tournament in the programme shed a bit of light on the game ending, first try won it and fortunately Brentwood had scored first. Brentwood was through to the final, probably quite luckily.

Following the semi final Brentwood moved camp to a pitch nearer the clubhouse, at last! The alcoholics again zipped off to the bar to leave the mothers to shift all the chairs etc and mysteriously only reappeared just before the game was about to begin. Chris Doble, who had been injured early on in the tournament, made it back from hospital in time to see the final, his glued together lip generating great excitement amongst the boys “Eurgh that’s gross…cool!”

By the time the final came round most of the boys were knackered, and if they weren’t their boots most certainly were! If you didn’t have skinned elbows and knees you were also seriously lucky with Kevin having to work over time to patch up most of the team. Stacks of plasters later and Brentwood were ready to take on Southwold in the Shield ‘A’ final.

Brentwood 0 Southwold 7

The final started promisingly for Brentwood with the backs looking quite nifty early on with Charlie and Matt Smith breaking the line. However the ball was turned over and Brentwood were blown away by an 80 metre counter attack, culminating in a try under the posts for Southwold. The conversion was also knocked over 7-0 Southwold.

The second half saw Brentwood pressing but just loosing the ball at crucial times and the game was slipping away with the obvious lack of time. Brentwood didn’t give up but the final was lost, another knock on signalling full time and a win for Southwold.

Ian concluded that Brentwood were never going to be good at games that are only 7 minutes a side, it takes the boys far too long to wake up! A pleasant day was had by all, especially when the sun eventually came out and despite losing the final it was a nice way to end the season and I’ll now spend my Sundays until September wandering around, clutching a notebook and looking lost.