A sunny afternoon, at King Georges Playing fields, and a match to warm the spirits, as Brentwood entertained their old adversaries from Letchworth, in front of a partisan crowd in excess of 200.

Brentwood won the toss, and elected to play down the slope, with the sun at their backs, and from the start went on the attack, with the big home side forwards dominating the early exchanges, only for the Letchworth side, to slowly but surely, make their way back into the game, making good use of their possession, and always being prepared to run the ball, but to be continually stopped by some outstanding tackling from the Brentwood centres and back row players.

As often happens, playing down the slope, was not proving to be as advantageous, as always assumed, and with both sides tackling well neither side allowed the other to gain the upper- hand and the play for the first 20 minutes took place in the middle of the park.

After 22 minutes, Brentwood made one of their, few visits into the oppositions 22, and after excellent handling between both forwards and backs, moved the ball swiftly to the left, finally being fed to Rob Mead on the wing, who cruised passed the covering defenders to dive over in the corner, Henry Bird duly converted the difficult kick, taking Brentwood into 7 – 0 lead.

Letchworth responded, almost immediately, with a glorious try, as they ran the ball from deep in their territory to score, despite some valiant tackling from the home side players. The conversion was successful taking the score to 7 – 7
With the Brentwood coaching team, using their bench replacements most effectively, and with the first half nearing its conclusion the home side took control of the game, firstly Henry Bird slotted over a penalty, and then super sub Boris Pratley, literally crashed over the try line with what looked like half the Letchworth pack hanging on to his shirt, to score an excellent try, as usual Henry Bird converted to take the half time score to 17 – 7 in Brentwood’s favour.

Letchworth, must have now fancied their chances playing down the hill, towards what they call “hell fire corner”, they kicked off the second half in confident mood, and were rewarded with an early score after some good play by their backs, again converted, taking the score to 17 – 14, very much game on!!

Over the years, time after time Brentwood teams have learnt how to play well up the slope, and today was no exception, with good line kicking from Tom Simpson, and excellent line out jumping from Rob Hobbs and captain Josh Woodcock, Brentwood began to win the territorial battle, although the Letchworth team, were always prepared to attack, this was time after time nullified by good Brentwood tackling, particularly from, Nick Binet, Josh Stannard, and Billy Aldous.

Brentwood added two more scores towards the end of the game, both tries scored up the left hand side of the pitch, as the pack began to dominate, firstly Tom Simpson raced away to score, and secondly following a good break Josh Stannard dived over in the corner. Henry Bird converted the former, but missed the latter after hitting the crossbar.

So Brentwood duly won an excellent game a credit to both sides, 29 – 14, an excellent advert for the game at this level, thoroughly enjoyed by all the spectators.

After 3 games, all won, Brentwood sit second in the table on 14 points, behind Thurrock, but only separated by the point’s differential. Brentwood’s best start to the season for 17 years, due to a large extent to the pre-season fitness sessions run by Andy Cappaert, and the hard work put in by Steve Killington and his 2 assistant coaches John Sproul and Andre Beukes.

The CHIGWELL CONSTRUCTION Man of the Match was a difficult choice as all 18 members of the match day squad played well, but after some deliberation club President Paul Kehoe, made the award to Rob Hobbs. Special mention also to Jamie Tavui, who came off the bench to make first team debut for the club.

Unfortunately the very youthful Brentwood second XV team went down to defeat by Westcliff, also at home 17 – 37 after a very tough match indeed, in so many ways.

The club will be open for all weekend and evening Rugby World Cup matches, anyone wanting to watch the games in a “proper” rugby club, please note you are more than welcome. Why not come to the club on Saturday to watch England V Wales kick off 8 pm?