Brentwood U16s 15 Chingford U16s 7

Brentwood finally triumph in a league game…

A ‘must win’ game apparently this one and even though Brentwood’s squad was looking slightly different to usual due to people skiving off on holiday the boys seemed quite up for the challenge. Unfortunately for Brentwood so did Chingford and the vast majority of the first half was spent grid locked in the middle of the pitch. Both sets of forwards were slogging away with Chris McCarthy especially doing a large amount of the donkey work and opportunities to get into the opposition 22 were few and far between.

Eventually Chingford managed to bash their way their way into the Brentwood 22 and after a bit of pressure found a hole in the Brentwood defence down the blind side and were through for the opening score of the game. The conversion from wide out was on target, 7-0 Chingford.

I’ll be honest, at this point I thought oh no. Luckily the boys on the pitch didn’t, in fact this seemed to be their cue to go up a gear. They pressured the catcher from the ensuing restart well and sure enough he dropped the ball, knocking it on with Joel flying through to scoop the loose ball up well. A maul was formed around him and the forwards motored to the line with the maul tumbling over just short but Will was on hand to crash over from all of 2 inches out for Brentwood’s first try. Since Billy “But I haven’t kicked in 9 months” Aldous was trying for the extras the score remained 7-5 to Chingford.

Brentwood almost managed to do exactly the same thing from the next restart with another powerful maul for the line. However whilst the maul got over the line, so far over the line in fact that it was nearer the dead ball line, nobody from Brentwood could rip the ball out to fall over for the score and the stop in play for the scrum saw the whistle blown for half time.

The second half saw Brentwood playing down hill and seemingly the new tactic was to hoof the ball as far down field as possible in the hope of a cruel bounce or knock on. Admittedly, although a little unorthodox, this seemed to be working quite well as in one way or another Brentwood usually managed to regain possession much deeper into Chingford territory. Despite pressurising for long periods though Brentwood were struggling to find the killer blow with passes just going astray or the odd knock on but eventually it had to come. The forwards got to within inches of the line and yet again Will, ever deadly from centimetres out, went over amongst a pile of bodies for his brace. Conversion? Don’t be ridiculous, 10-7 to Brentwood.

Fortunately the boys were well aware that they were in that dodgy in the lead but if you concede one break away try you lose type area and decided not to give their long suffering supporters a heart attack this week by going through their mad 5 minutes of forgetting how to play. They kept pushing for the try which would put them more than a converted score ahead and an inspired piece of play from Roland very nearly came off as he came flying into the line late from fullback, down the blindside and chipped over the last defender. A Chingford player managed to scramble back but Roland made the tackle and the forward cavalry arrived to pile in and turn the ball over. Chingford though had got back quickly and managed to stop Brentwood scoring but Brentwood continued to press for the try with the ball being held up over the try line. The scrum was set 5 metres out and the ball crashed off the back, a couple of rucks later and Chris Doble found himself a gap to go over in the corner for the try. Of course Billy missed but the score was still 15-7 to Brentwood which gave a bit of breathing space.

In the dying minutes Chingford tried hard to get a score back with another last ditch tackle from Roland just saving Brentwood on one occasion but it was to be Brentwood’s day as the final whistle went, 15-7 to Brentwood, a good performance from the boys and some praise from Ian which really is an achievement in itself!