Brentwood U17s 43 Sudbury Colts 20

First half blitz sets up Brentwood win…

Brentwood travelled to Sudbury a little rusty having had a few weeks off for varying extreme weather conditions and the feeling on the touchline was that this, coupled with the colts being older than us, could be a long game for Brentwood.

As ever Brentwood however do like to prove their eternally pessimistic match reporter wrong and came flying out of the blocks at an alarming speed. Within twenty seconds of play starting Brentwood had managed to catch the kick off, thunder up field and win a penalty smack in front of the posts. Charlie stepped up and coolly slotted it, 3-0 Brentwood and a good start.

A good start soon turned into a great start for Brentwood. Sudbury tried to hit back but Brentwood defended wonderfully, mauling the ball off their own line to the 22 and then Charlie rifling a kick into touch. It got better as James nicked the lineout and the ball was out quickly to the backs. Charlie sliced through the defence, found Roland who had come in to the line from fullback; he drew the last man and popped the ball off to James Adams who flew up the touchline to dive in the corner and finish of a sublime Brentwood try. Charlie nailed the touchline conversion, 10-0 Brentwood.

Sudbury looked almost bemused at the Brentwood whirlwind that had hit them but Brentwood weren’t about to relent with another opportunity going begging soon after with a knock on at a crucial time. Sudbury began to work their way back into the game and were unlucky not to get on the score sheet when a penalty attempt hit the post but from there Brentwood showed great ambition as they broke from deep. Charlie caught the ricocheting ball and set off. Roland carried the move on and Sudbury conceded the penalty, Charlie kicked for touch and from being in the shadow of their own posts Brentwood had made a 75 metre gain. From the play after the lineout James nearly made it over again but was just bundled into touch. Te lineout was pressurised and Brentwood earned themselves a 5 metre scrum. The ball was clean and straight to Charlie who dummied and glided through the Sudbury defence to scoot in under the posts. He converted his own try to make the score 17-0 Brentwood.

The next period of play saw Sudbury keep hold of the ball and gradually work their way into Brentwood territory. Brentwood again defended well but eventually a mismatch was worked about 5 metres out on the blind side, with the guy they appeared to call ‘Pasty’ one on one with James Adams. Poor James was flattened; credit must go to him for even attempting the tackle! The conversion missed leaving the score 17-5 to Brentwood.

Brentwood weren’t happy that their try line had been breached and responded well, crashing up the pitch at a frenetic pace, Sam Fry making a couple of nice darts along the way. Charlie dinked another kick in and the Brentwood chaser put the pressure on to ruck Sudbury clean off the ball for the turnover. Sudbury conceded another penalty and the ever alert Mikey tapped, zipped it out to Jake who went in under the posts. Charlie knocked the conversion over, 24-5 Brentwood.

Next up was a bit of skill from Mikey as he broke round the fringes and sped up field. Approaching the last man at fullback he put a deft chip over him, straight out of the Bruce Reihana text book, he didn’t quite re gather as the winger had made it back just in time to sweep up but yet again Brentwood piled through and turned the ball over. It was passed to Sam Fry who made a strong, determined run to eventually make it over the line. Charlie nailed yet another conversion from out wide, 31-5 Brentwood.

The final say of the half went to Sudbury as they worked their way into Brentwood’s half and won a kickable penalty which was converted to leave it 31-8 in Brentwood’s favour at half time. An impressive first half performance.

If the first half had started wonderfully the second half was the complete opposite from a Brentwood perspective. The restart was dropped, Brentwood phaffed around, Sudbury came up with the ball and the try had been conceded. The conversion missed but this was exactly not how Brentwood had wanted to press on, 31-13.

Things then got even worse as Brentwood, who appeared to be having their customary mad patch of old, gave away a few needless penalties and lost ground. Sudbury were starting to get into a bit of a rhythm and so scored another try, this time it was converted and suddenly it was 31-20 to Brentwood, the lead had been cut considerably.

Fortunately Brentwood decided to come out of their mad spell and play a bit of rugby again. There was an initial good charge from Chris Doble, nearly making the try line but just getting held up short. Brentwood made hard work of it from the resulting 5 metre scrum but eventually Chris McCarthy managed to fend off a couple of defenders after James had done likewise to go under the posts. Charlie again converted, 38-20 Brentwood.

The game then again got a bit disjointed from Brentwood but a cunning kick from Mikey when nothing else was on put Brentwood back in the right area of the field. Brentwood then managed to string some pressure together again with good contributions from both Matt Smith and Sam Fry on several occasions, the eventual outcome being Sudbury being forced to take the ball back over their own line. From the 5 metre scrum the ball was out quickly to the backs and Jake cut the line to go over for the try. For the first time the conversion missed but the score was 43-20 Brentwood and full time followed very soon after.

A brilliant performance from Brentwood, the first half especially, with Ian calling it “nearly a complete performance.” Praise indeed!