Brentwood U16s 72 Millwall U16s 5

Was that the millennium dome…?

After a pleasant morning stroll by the river the Brentwood supporters tore themselves away from the rowers and re-assembled by the pitch to watch the game. It was a good call, Brentwood started well. Straight from the off there were some slick hands, one huge dent made in the Millwall defence by James Paton and Jake was over for the opening try before I’d even had time to blink. The conversion missed but nonetheless it was a good start, 5-0 Brentwood.

From the restart Roland set off downfield on a mazy run, probably going about three quarters of the length of the field all by himself. I have however remarked in my notes that the pitch looked extremely short! The run set up good field position for Brentwood but eventually a knock on came. Brentwood though won back the ball at the scrum and were ruthless with the turn over ball; Michael got it out quickly to Adam at fly half. He shifted it into the centres where Jake passed to Sam Fry who spun two tackles to go over under the posts. Chris Doble was on hand with the conversion, 12-0 Brentwood.

Brentwood were beginning to dominate largely in the contact by this point despite a huge amount of effort from Millwall and were being awarded many penalties as a result. One such penalty was tapped quickly, possibly by Luke but I’m not quite sure, the defence weren’t 10 so it was taken again 10 metres further up field. It was tapped again and thrown wide to the backs with Sam and Jake in the centres combining well to send Adam over for the try. Conversion missed, 17-0 Brentwood.

The next try came from another turned over scrum. The ball again was thrown wide quickly with Sam Fry the recipient of the scoring pass to score his second, Ian remarking that he was in jug avoidance territory for the second week. Chris added the extras, 24-0 Brentwood.

The next phase of play saw a devastating run by Pratley take out the vast majority of the Millwall defence, rather them trying to tackle him that me, and with Michael and Adam pulling a clever switch move Jake was able to send Matt Smith over for another. The conversion from wide missed, 29-0 Brentwood.

Brentwood were in full flow now with Adam making a lovely break but the following pass just being dropped 5 metres from the line. The resulting scrum however saw Brentwood turn the ball over again and James went crashing off the back to score. It was in fact brutal. The conversion missed, 34-0 Brentwood.

The forwards were obviously getting a bit miffed at the backs getting all the glory in the match so the next try involved pretty much none of them and I think those that tried to get involved were told where to go. Much crashing and bashing later and Rob scrambled over the try line. The conversion missed, 39-0 Brentwood.

The last try of the half was also Brentwood’s. Millwall won their lineout 5 metres out from the try line but unfortunately decided to try a speculative pass which went straight to Matt Whaley who fell over for one of the pikiest tries you’ll ever seen. Adam whacked the conversion over, 46-0 Brentwood.

With that came half time and some chit chat to Jodie lead to me complaining about how the woman who does the Wasps commentary always goes off on one about Josh Lewsey’s shorts and I find it quite irritating. Dee interjected to tell me all I’d done for the entire first half was witter on about how the Millwall player’s shorts were too long and that their socks didn’t match. Thankfully the second half began before I had to get myself out of that one…

Brentwood began from where they left off with some unselfish play amongst the backs sending Michael, who I think was now playing on the wing, over for a try. Chris Doble popped the conversion over, 53-0 Brentwood.

Brentwood ’s next move saw their lineout overthrown straight to Chris Doble. Although Billy tells me it was meant to be thrown that far but I remain unconvinced. Chris, however, didn’t waste the opportunity and swatted a defender to bulldoze his way over the try line. Having scored he then stepped up to convert his own try which bout up the 60 for Brentwood.

Brentwood ’s front row continued to destroy anything placed in front of them and won another scrum against the head. This time the ball was switched quickly to the large blind side and Dan put Michael over for his second. The conversion missed, 65-0.

The fact that both Michael and Sam were now both on for a hat trick threw up the problem that they both wanted it to get it first and so refused to pass to each other, Sam getting particularly fed up that Michael didn’t pass to him when he was free on the wing. Another scrum won by Brentwood saw Sam then go rocketing through the defence on a line off Adam but he was hauled down only inches short much to Michael’s amusement. Carl capitalised and scored the typical props deadly from 5 inches out type try. Chris knocked the conversion over, 72-0 Brentwood.

Millwall though were determined not to end without a try of their own. And credit to them they kept on tackling and kept on competing as if the game was 0-0. Eventually they got their reward and got one back, receiving the biggest applause of the day to bring the score to 72-5 and finished the game well in the ascendancy when they so nearly scored a second.

Hopefully Brentwood can now perform in the same manner at the festival next weekend but I’ll be honest, I’d be most grateful if you’d keep the score down, it not only takes me ages to report but is also very challenging to my mental arithmetic!