On a sunny but chilly afternoon at King Georges, a vociferous post lunch crowd was treated to an exciting match between two clubs who are fierce rivals on the pitch and good friends off it.

Letchworth opened the scoring after four minutes when their prominent flanker Joe Allison burst through the centre of Brentwood’s defence to score under the posts. The conversion gave Letchworth an early 0-7 lead.
Brentwood responded immediately and pressed Letchworth back into their defensive zone. A line out and strong forward surge was completed by young hooker Jack Richards touching down for an unconverted home try.

It was Letchworth’s turn to put their opponents under pressure from the restart and the award of a penalty by the referee gave their excellent kicker the chance to boost Letchworth’s lead to 5-10 after 20 minutes. Again Brentwood responded immediately and some slick passing by their fleet footed backs saw centre Josh Stannard run in another special try, his third in two matches. Henry Bird’s conversion put Brentwood into the lead at 12-10. Predictably in a see sawing first half, it was Letchworth who scored next when full back Phil Amaleumi ended a good passing movement by touching down in the left hand corner and followed his try with a terrific conversion from the touchline.

With the score at 12-17 to Letchworth after 27 minutes, both sets of supporters were expectant of more to come. They only had to wait another four minutes for the next score, a try by Brentwood’s lively scrum half Harry Chambers which was duly converted by his brother Charlie to make the score 19-17 in favour of the home team. The frantic action prompted Brentwood coach Steve Killington to make three changes, bringing on last year’s Colts skipper James Killington for his debut in the second row replacing Nick Binet who had taken a heavy knock. Adam Thomas replaced Henry Bird at inside centre, and Louis Payne relieved Lewis Pratley in the front row.
Brentwood’s advantage was again short lived when a 34th minute penalty put Letchwood back in front at 19-20, and two minutes later a Charlie Chambers penalty made it 22-20 to Brentwood. Two more Letchworth penalties completed a half of rugby in which 48 points were scored and the lead exchanged seven times. The score at the break was 22-26 in favour of the visitors.

Brentwood kicked off the second half down the slope and played with more structure and greater resolve from the restart. Pressing Letchworth back to their 20 metre line, the home side won a big scrum against the head and moved the ball quickly out to right winger Ed Greenfield who scored Brentwood’s fourth try in the corner to register a bonus point and put his side back into a narrow 27-26 lead.
This score was quickly followed by another Brentwood try after nine minutes of the second half.
This time centre Adam Thomas breached the Letchworth defence before off loading to skipper Josh Woodcock who powered over for try number five for Brentwood which was again converted by Charlie Chambers. Brentwood hooker Jack Richards had to be replaced by Lewis Pratley after a front row collapse left him with a neck injury. Almost immediately, right winger Ed Greenfield had to leave the field with a shoulder injury after a heavy tackle and Henry Bird rejoined the fray after sixteen minutes play.

After twenty four minutes, a rolling maul from a now rampant Brentwood pack saw Louis Payne score home try number six and the score move on to 39-26. More strong forward play led to the final home try four minutes later. A great line out catch by James Killington set up a forward drive which ended with skipper Woodcock scoring his second and his team’s seventh try of the game. Henry Bird’s conversion completed the scoring and the game ended in a decisive 46-26 win for Brentwood.

This fifth consecutive Brentwood win was achieved after trailing at half time to a Letchworth side that gave as good as it got for forty minutes. Four tries and twenty four unanswered Brentwood second half points, saw the game end in a convincing home victory. The DAVLAV man of the match award went to flanker Jack Wells.

Brentwood move up to third place in the league with 26 points from six matches, two points behind leaders Tring. The next 1st XV match is away to Thurrock on 22nd October, kick off at 3.00pm.

Brentwood Team: Skurr, Richards, Pratley, Woodcock (c), Hobbs, Binet, Wells, King, Chambers (H), Chambers (C), Stanier, Bird, Stannard, Greenfield and Simpson. Subs were Payne, Killington and Thomas.