Brentwood 28 N.Walsham 22 (London & South East Division: North 1) 19th December 2015

Crisp out of the pack !! ....

Brentwood sitting 2nd in the league table, entertained North Walsham, 4th in the table, at King Georges last Saturday. The good sized crowd anticipated a good hard game, and were not disappointed as both sides, produced a lively and at times, bruising encounter a credit to level 6 rugby.

Captain Josh Woodcock won the toss and elected to play up the slope into the wind, most of the early play took place in the oppositions half as Brentwood tried to turn their territorial advantage into points, but were continually frustrated. They did however open their account in the 15th minute, when Rob Hobbs crashed over the line following, a quickly taken tapped penalty, and the ball being moved at pace between both forwards and backs. Henry Bird converted.

Shortly after this Brentwood where reduced to 14 men, when Billy Aldous was somewhat harshly sin binned, and North Walsham began to dominate the game, but were kept at bay by the home team, with some excellent tackling being put in by all the home side players, but in particular Tom Simpson, who also put in some telling kicks to regularly relieve the pressure on the Brentwood try line.
North Walsham had four good opportunities to score, but only succeeded with one of these, as Brentwood were let of the hook, due to the final pass being poorly executed. The half time whistle came with Brentwood relieved to be winning 7 -5, a slender lead, but with the benefit of the slope and the wind in their favour in the 2nd half, put them in the driving seat

Brentwood went on the attack immediately from the kick off, and spent the first 20 minutes of the half camped in North Walsham territory, which resulted in two further tries both converted by Henry Bird. Firstly Josh Woodcock broke from a line out, and waltzed through the defence to score, shortly followed by Jon Crisp diving over in the corner. Other opportunities were missed, when the normally reliable James Metcalfe spilled the ball, with the try line begging, and a “try” by Josh Stannard was overruled by the referee, who judged that the covering defence had beaten him to touching the ball down.

North Walsham, then went on the attack, mainly due to their dominance of the line out, and scored a well worked try taking the score to 21- 10, before substitute Adam Thomas burst through the centre to dive over for Brentwood’s fourth try, achieving the all-important try bonus point. Yet again Henry Bird converted taking the score to 28 – 10, with 10 minutes to go.
To their credit North Walsham did not give in, and produced some excellent attacking rugby and scored two late tries one of which was converted, taking the final score to 28 – 22.

Another good win for Brentwood, head coach Steve Killington was delighted for all the players, and was pleased to give young substitutes James Vogel and Jack Rocke game time.
The Chigwell Construction man of the match went to Tom Simpson for his fine all round display.

This win keeps Brentwood in second place 3 points behind the league leaders Amersham and Chiltern. The next game after the extended Christmas and New Year break, is a visit to old rivals Letchworth on 9th January