Brentwood 61 Ruslip 33 (London & South East Division: North 1) 12th December 2015

Second placed Brentwood were keen to return to winning ways when they entertained ninth placed Ruislip in their 13th London North 1 League match of the season at King Georges on Saturday.

Playing down the slope with a stiffening breeze at their backs, Brentwood pressed right from the kick-off. After four minutes, fly half Tom Simpson crossed the Ruislip line for the first Brentwood try which was duly converted by Henry Bird.

Ruislip fought back with some slick passing and quick movement that led to them winning a line out close to the Brentwood line. The ball was secured and an effective Ruislip rolling maul resulted in a try in the right hand corner which was not converted in the tricky wind.

The score of 7-5 in Brentwood’s favour after 25 minutes of evenly contested play gave the stoic home crowd little hint of what was to come in the final 15 minutes of the first half. Brentwood unleashed a spell of top quality fifteen man attacking play that led to a string of five more tries before the break, all five converted by the metronomic boot of Bird.

The pick of these were the second try in which second row Josh Woodcock kept up with the defence bursting run of winger Aaron Stannier to take the off load and gallop in under the posts, and the fourth try, a splendid scything run through the middle by the elusive Declan Gillett which left a series of Ruislip tacklers in his wake. The other try scorers in this spell were Tom Simpson (2), and Aaron Stannier.

Turning round 42-5 ahead meant Brentwood were inevitably confident of victory even though they were playing up the slope and into what was now a strong wind in the second half.

What ensued was 40 minutes of high scoring open and somewhat unpredictable rugby in which both sides and the referee all played their parts. Four converted Ruislip tries were answered by three Brentwood tries from Declan Gillett, Tom Simpson, and Josh Stannard, and two more conversions from Bird. Final score 61 - 33 to Brentwood.

Director of Rugby Steve Killington awarded the Chigwell Construction man of the match award this week to the scorer of four home tries, Tom Simpson. Skipper Josh Woodcock and number eight Tom King were also commended by Killington for their strong contributions to a deserved Brentwood win.