Brentwood U17s 35 Bury St Edmunds U17s 0

Where have all our players gone…

What a glorious day for rugby. Well, if you happened to be a duck. Only the hardcore supporters turned up for this match in a delightful downpour but that was the least of Brentwood’s worries as they could only field 15 players. Worse still Billy was in the centre. But despite this and the weather things did in fact start brightly.

Brentwood were actually patient with the build up in the knowledge that the wet conditions were going to make things difficult and with Chris McCarthy looking like he was on performance enhancing drugs and Charlie kicking well out of hand Brentwood had early dominance. After quite a period of good control Charlie managed to jink over. And then nailed the touchline conversion too, 7-0 Brentwood.

The following period of play saw Billy throw a wonderful intercept pass…fortunately Brentwood’s defence scrambled well and defence was soon turned into attack, Sam Fry making a strong run down the middle and after some rumbling from the forwards a scrum 5 metres out was won. With the new ELVs whenever James plays number 8 he looks to exploit the additional space and sure enough picked up from the base and went to score, adding another to his ever growing tally for the season. This time with the additional bonus of a smack on the nose. Whilst James was mopping his nose Charlie knocked another good conversion over. 14-0 Brentwood.

Brentwood continued to play powerfully, more hard yards made by the forwards earned a penalty and Charlie was instructed to kick for the 3. Which he did, taking the score to 17-0 Brentwood.

Unfortunately Brentwood then lost a man, James Adams with a reoccurrence of a niggling shoulder problem. This meant Brentwood were down to 14 and Roland and Jonny between them were both wings and fullback…

The forwards of course saw this as an excuse to stick it up their jumpers, something they are fond of doing as they are still somewhat suspicious of these sinister creatures known as backs. James Paton and Rob were both responsible for some considerable dents with Rob taking about 5 men to stop him getting the try. This caused an overlap out wide which gave Ollie the opportunity to gallop over, Billy throwing the assist. This is only written because he was so pleased with himself he actually bothered to tell me and make me note it down. The conversion missed, 22-0 Brentwood.

Next up was a bit of showboating from Luke and his pink boots, Dee is to be held solely responsible as apparently she keeps making him watch Strictly Come Dancing. But then with a father who has a thing for drunkenly singing Dancing Queen by ABBA (loudly in my kitchen at about 2am may I add) what chance has the poor boy got?

A pinpoint kick from Charlie then forced Bury to kick the ball out for a 5 metre scrum and that ball off the top to Chris McCarthy only worked again didn’t it! Most bizarre. The conversion missed, 27-0 Brentwood.

The boys were growing tired as the game wore on, I can only imagine running in that mud is much like trying to wade in treacle…so Charlie decided to probe the corners for a bit meaning some nice walking about in between lineout’s! A clearing kick from one such lineout lead to the ball being cleared by Bury but only as far as Jonny who set off on a lovely run, popping the ball to Billy just far enough out from the try line for him to slide over. He wouldn’t have made it if the ground were dry. Charlie hit another stunning touchline conversion to make up for the fact that it was Billy who scored, 35-0 Brentwood.

Lastly came the comedy moment of the day, a marvellous intercept by Luke saw him charging towards the posts for what would have been the longest distance try he’d ever scored…but seemingly all that open space got a bit too scary and in looking for the pass so he could hurry back to the dark claustrophobic spaces of the forwards the ball was dropped. But for the sheer comedy value it was most definitely moment of the match! Full time came soon after, Brentwood 35 Bury 0 and a good effort by the lads in miserable conditions. Praise must also go to Bury who themselves caused Brentwood a fair amount of defensive headaches at times.

Finally, I’d like to apologise for how late this report is. There is no worthy excuse, I just never got round to it…