Brentwood U17s 24 Saracens U17s 5

Brentwood put Sarries to the sword…

You could just tell Brentwood was well up for this one, it was raining and pretty chilly and not one of the boys was moaning they were cold in the warm up! Yes not even Billy!

The forwards started brutally, crashing through the rucks and pummelling in the loose. Having made good ground Mikey, in his scrum hat and looking freakily like Bruce Reihana (Northampton Saints player, Google him!) went on a typical snipe round the fringe, Charlie carried on the momentum and broke through having received Mike’s pass and Jake was on his shoulder to steam in. Charlie whacked the conversion over, 7-0 and an emphatic start from the boys.

The conditions were not easily playable but Brentwood were really having a go and actually, on occasions, playing quite intelligent rugby. Must be a blue moon…Jonny was having a busy afternoon on the wing and having chased a kick well he also managed a charge down to put Brentwood in a great position. Then it was time for the forwards to shine, they were actually smashing men off the ball in the rucks and when they generate momentum like that nobody is going to stop them. Sure enough Sam Morgan went over not long after. The conversion from wide missed, 12-0 Brentwood.

Having played sublimely well from the off it was almost inevitable that Brentwood would endure their mad five minutes where they revert to the ‘run around like headless chickens’ game plan they used to use in the minis. Saracens were not going to let such an opportunity slip and some soft tackling from Brentwood helped them to capitalise, going over for a try of their own as an almost immediate reply. Brentwood’s very own Mr Angry, Del, hasn’t been quite that irate for a long time…The conversion was missed, well if you will wear tights whilst playing…12-5 Brentwood.

Mad five minutes over Brentwood finished the half strongly with Pratley placing a monstrous hand off on one unfortunate victim and another strong surge from Roland at full back. Heck even Billy was playing quite well. Directly before half time Brentwood probably should have added to their score but were held up firstly and then the ball was dropped over the try line in the wet conditions but whilst the score remained the same Brentwood went in at half time full of confidence.

It was commented on early in the second half that Chris McCarthy was covering a huge amount of ground again this week and making yet more bootlace pick ups. Whatever it is Chris, it’s obviously good…Chris combined with Sam Morgan was making vast gains in ground and Brentwood collectively were piling on the pressure yet again but the finish just wasn’t there with the ball being held up yet again. However from the ensuing scrum an old favourite from the set moves book was revived, the mars bar was back! And back to stunning effect as Roland switched to the wing for the move and quite simply from 5 out with a head of steam no one was stopping him. The conversion missed but importantly it was 17-5 Brentwood, over a score ahead and a bit of breathing space.

Now, at this stage the Brentwood we all know and get frustrated by probably would have eased off a bit, conceded a try and made for a nerve jangling final quarter. But not today! Something spurred Brentwood on even further to press on and they began to rampage downfield time after time, the forwards were annihilating all in their path at contact time and the backs were catching and passing! Brentwood retained possession although again they just couldn’t seem to get over the try line, Ian could be heard yelling “Stupid!” at varying intervals because he’s never happy but finally he was silenced. Ok so it was the last play of the game but never mind…The forwards won a turn over in the middle of the field and Mikey/Bruce ran an intelligent line before passing to Sam Fry who flew threw the gap created and bamboozled the Saracens defence by keeping the ball in two hands (now there’s a novel idea) and thus not letting them know whether he was going to pass or continue. At the death he opted to step and left the last man rooted to the spot to go in under the posts. Nobody could be bothered to run the tee on so just to show off Charlie drop kicked the conversion. Final score Brentwood 24 Saracens 5 and a job well done!