Brentwood U16s 32 Romford U16s 12

Brentwood edge closer to escaping relegation…

Brentwood have by no stretch of the imagination been at their best in the league this season but omens were good on Sunday when the boys started well, Chris Doble thumping into the kick off receiver straight from the off.

The first period of play basically consisted in the forwards doing what they love to, crashing the ball up and not letting it anywhere near the backs. This formula was responsible for Brentwood’s first try of the match when lots of general bashing resulted in Chris Doble finding some space down the blind side and going over in the corner for the score. The conversion missed, 5-0 Brentwood.

Things got a bit scrappy following this, the forwards were offloading well and thus got a tad overexcited, this ending in James going for a chip and chase which caused much hilarity amongst the spectators but not so much with the coaches…Play made its way down into the Romford 22 where there were about 17 different scrums, by which point what with it being cold and the scrummaging not the most riveting component of the game some of the women had resorted to practicing their salsa moves from the previous Friday. Other than Pauline who decided she’d freestyle it…Anyhow, eventually Romford were forced into a bad clearance kick which went straight up in the air, was fought for by half of the Brentwood and Romford squads and eventually ended up in the grateful arms of Chris Doble who fell over the try line in the opposite corner from the previous to score. It would be nice if you could occasionally give the kicker an easier attempt…conversion missed, 10-0 Brentwood.

With that half time and more mamboing on the touchline. Admittedly it’s not quite as easy when you have so many layers on you resemble the Michelin man.

The second half saw Brentwood’s bruisers (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) come to the fore with James and Pratley (like Ronhaldino he appears only to have a surname…) making devastating runs which scattered the Romford defence like skittles. One particular link up saw James and Pratley make the initial inroads, the ball was given to the backs, Sam Fry made the half break and Matt Smith was on hand to score, an event that “only happens once a season” according to his Dad, conversion missed, 15-0 Brentwood.

Romford however were not simply going to let Brentwood have it all their own way, they re-gathered the ball and worked their way downfield to exploit some space well and get in for their first try. The conversion missed, 15-5 to Brentwood.

Some more forward work and another powerful carry from Pratley saw him just caught before the line but he offloaded well to Mike who was under the posts for Brentwood’s fourth try. Charlie made no mistake with the simple conversion, 22-5 in Brentwood’s favour.

Brentwood’s fifth was probably the best of the match, as the backs ran the ball straight back from the restart and some cunning dummy lines saw a small hole open up for Matt Smith who went slashing through and then threw an outrageous dummy to get past the fullback. A gob smacked Matt’s Dad was forced to concede that “ok maybe he scores twice a season.” Charlie again converted, 29-5 to Brentwood.

Romford, to their credit, were determined to make it as uneasy as possible for Brentwood and when the Brentwood defence parted like the red sea they made no mistake in taking advantage and scoring again. The conversion was also spot on, 29-12 to Brentwood.

Brentwood though upped the anti and some good play from Matt Smith resulted in a Brentwood penalty. Given the recent Romford revival Brentwood opted for the kick at goal to make sure of the win and Charlie made no mistake to give Brentwood a 32-12 lead and with that the win, only Brentwood’s second in the league.

The after match talk bought up two interesting points, “if a player doesn’t have legs he can’t run” and that “Brentwood were much like England”. Whilst the first point is of course true, if slightly cruel to play people with no legs, I think it’s hard to parallel Brentwood with England, I doubt Balshaw would be allowed to start at fullback for Brentwood.