Brentwood U16s 5 Colchester U16s 15

Brentwood loses pre Christmas thriller…

This week’s weather was fine, dry and festive. Well actually on the festive front I thought it was a bit of a poor show with only myself and Dee bothering with Santa hats, fortunately on the rugby front it wasn’t so bad!

Matches against Colchester are always hard fought and this one was to be no different with the game starting in a bruising fashion, both sets of forwards clattering into each other to try and assert an early dominance. It was Brentwood’s forwards who took control though, allowing the backs good ball to use and this was reflected in centres Sam Fry and Jake making yards and Roland cutting in well from fullback.

Brentwood played the entire opening period of the game in the Colchester half with the vast majority of possession but in typical Brentwood fashion the inevitable happened. Colchester gathered possession of the ball in their half and set up the maul from which it was spun to the backs who broke, a couple of pairs of hands later and Colchester were in the corner for the try. One visit to the Brentwood half and 5 points as the conversion missed, a good try but not one which showed Brentwood’s dominance in the opening exchanges, 5-0 Colchester.

The rest of the first half was, as expected, a ferocious battle with neither side giving an inch. Brentwood carried on battling to try and bring themselves level but the Colchester defence was not looking in the slightest bit leaky. As the half time whistle blew the score on the scoreboard so prettily decorated by Jodie and Ross read 5-0 Colchester.

The second half saw Brentwood again start well and in no time at all the forwards had muscled their way into the Colchester half once again. This however was the time for the backs to shine. The ball was shifted quickly to Charlie, who passed to Jake who drew his man and passed to Sam Fry who did likewise and then offloaded to Charlie round on the loop to create an extra man and a bit of space. The pass from Charlie to Joel was good and Joel needed no invitation to put the burners on and blast for the corner. For some one who “never touches the ball” he scores a fair few tries…the conversion was agonisingly close but not quite there, 5 all.

The next notable part of the game came when Colchester were on the attack and looking to restore their lead. An up and under was hoofed in Roland’s direction probably under the impression that Roland not being the tallest would struggle to claim it as his own but no, Roland leapt majestically and claimed the ball. Colchester didn’t bother trying that tactic again!

Unfortunately not long after Brentwood’s discipline cost them as they conceded a very kickable penalty. The Colchester kicker made no mistake as the ball went straight down the middle, 8-5 Colchester and surely not long left…until someone announced there were in fact 12 minutes. Where on earth did they come from?!

Brentwood continued to fight for the win but in their urgency to do so began to cough up possession a little too easily at times and one such time nearly allowed Colchester to land the killer blow when they broke through the defence expertly and it seemed no one was going to be quick enough to prevent a try in the corner. And then Jake came flying across and managed to absolutely clatter the Colchester player into touch all of about 2 centimetres from the try line. A Josh Lewsey on Jean De Villiers type moment somebody remarked…perhaps but without wishing to cause offence nobody is quite up there with my Josh on the looks scale!

Following this there was a little bit of friction on the touch line due to issues with Ian being the touch judge and giving touch not the try but the boys on the field got on with it and play continued, one day the TMO will come to the grass roots clubs but until that day…

Alas it was all to be in vain as Brentwood, still trying to force it somewhat, let possession go and were again ripped to shreds on the break away. The conversion was scored, time was up, final score 15-5 to Colchester but a game Brentwood could have won.

And finally after the match it was nice to have such a good turn out at the Dads and Lads curry with a good mix of lads who’ve been there since the minis to those who’ve just joined and everyone in-between! Your intrepid reporter and partner in crime Jodie are allowed to attend such events purely for press reasons to report back matters such as Rocky using the women’s loos, Del foaming at the mouth and Rory having to down 2 pints of coke due to being particularly useless at stupid drinking games! A good night was had by all involved and since it’s the season of goodwill and he didn’t ditch me on the way back from the Indian like my own brother, Billy I thought you had a good game!