Chingford 24 Brentwood 5 (London & South East Division:North 1) 25th January 2020

Following last week's narrow loss, Brentwood made the trip to Chingford with three enforced changes to the matchday 18. In the pack a reshuffle to accommodate injury to George Bassenger saw Dan Suttle start in the second row and Matt Whaley switch to flanker with Jack Wells coming on to the bench alongside the returning Jack Richards. In the backs, James White's concussion lay-off saw a straight swap with James McCarthy at scrum half, Sam Cappaert moved to 12 in the place of the injured Adam Thomas and Jake Harcourt came into the team at fullback.
For Brentwood this was not to be a memorable game. Perhaps it was last week still taking its toll both physically and mentally, but Brentwood's start was lacklustre and continued in that manner for the majority of the first 35 minutes.

Chingford, on the other hand, had come out ready to make amends for their 31-3 loss at King George's earlier in the season and looked lively. Controlling the lion's share of both territory and possession they forced Brentwood to defend in their own half for long periods and on the rare occasion that Brentwood did have the ball, Chingford worked hard to ensure it wouldn't be theirs for long. Somehow, in spite of the pressure, Brentwood managed to just about keep Chingford out, Jake Harcourt marshalling some testing kicks well and last ditch tackles from Sam Kendall, Thomas Lucas Roast and James Vogel preventing the try on three separate occasions before Chingford also missed a long range penalty attempt.

It was inevitable though that eventually the pressure would tell. From another relentless attack Chingford's forwards made the hard yards up the middle, pulling in Brentwood defenders, and it looked as though another pod of forwards were gathered for more of the same again. It was, however, a cunning ruse, the ball spun wide on a miss pass straight past the waiting pod and into the hands of Chingford's fullback. The accuracy of the pass had put him outside Brentwood's defence, and he made good yards before drawing Brentwood's last man and popping the ball to his supporting winger; his electric pace leaving Brentwood no hope of getting anywhere near as Chingford crossed the whitewash. The conversion was good for the extras, 7-0 to Chingford.

A dropped restart saw Brentwood finally get past the Chingford 10 metre line for possibly the first time in the game and, after a decent burst from Sam Kendall, they even threatened to make it into the 22...alas it wasn't to be, Brentwood's failure to protect their own ball at the ruck seeing Chingford drive over for the turnover and clear.

Back firmly in their own half, Brentwood tried again. Again, Sam Kendall made a bustling run up the middle (no clean shirt accusations this week!) and was followed up by Jack Richards who had spied a dogleg in midfield to burst into space. James Vogel and Toby Tierney carried the momentum on strongly, punching a couple of holes in the Chingford defence, and after around 35 minutes of play Brentwood had finally breached the Chingford 22 for the first time! Chingford though were in no mood to let Brentwood gain anything from their meagre slither of possession and territory and their disciplined defence shut Brentwood down time and time again before a knock on allowed them to kick the ball out for half time.
At only 7-0 down there was hope that if Brentwood could actually get hold of the ball in the second half there was a chance to pull this one back...but the second half kick-off quashed those hopes fairly quickly. Looking to win the ball back as he has done many times in recent weeks, Charlie Wilkinson went hard after Thomas Lucas Roast's restart but in attempting to make the tackle clashed heads with Chingford's catcher. As he wobbled back to his feet with a nice cut to the face it was evident to all that he was concussed and would be playing no further part in the match, the referee also seeing it fit to issue him a yellow card which he certainly won't remember, presumably for leading dangerously with the head...

The resulting penalty saw Brentwood once again back in their own half and with Chingford looking to exploit the extra man, only another excellent covering tackle from Sam Kendall managed to bring the Chingford winger down when he looked to be clear. Unfortunately, it only delayed the inevitable. Chingford recycled the ball and brought it back in field for a couple of phases before getting it wide once more where they had an overlap, their fullback this time being on the end of the final pass for the try. The conversion was accurate, 14-0 Chingford.
Chingford's second try seemed to inspire a bit more urgency in Brentwood and there was a brief resurgence - a bullet like pass from Sam Cappaert putting Sam Kendall in space before Toby Tierney made a prominent carry and Alex Wilson took the ball on but was just shunted into touch. Brentwood managed to get a hand to the ball in the lineout, knocking the ball on, but earned a penalty from Chingford's scrum which allowed them to kick for the corner. The lineout was taken cleanly and the maul set, lurching forward slowly until Leo Friswell spied a bit of space and broke off down the blindside. Chingford's defenders were unable to stop him grounding the ball across the line and finally Brentwood had some points on the scoreboard. Thomas Lucas Roast's conversion attempt hit the posts and bounced back out again, 14-5 to Chingford.

Brentwood's glimmer of hope of perhaps coming away with a losing bonus point was short lived, Chingford seizing back the initiative almost straight away and working their way quickly back into the Brentwood danger zone. By now the prolonged first half defending was taking its toll and tackles were being missed, Chingford slipping through several attempts to score under the posts, the conversion putting the game comfortably out of reach of Brentwood at 21-5.
Chingford attacked once more from the restart, again making fairly easy yards back up the field and into Brentwood's half and won a penalty when James Vogel's intercept attempt was deemed to be a deliberate knock on. Not impressed with this decision, Sam Cappaert offered his view that James had been trying to catch it having batted the ball up, but the referee was not interested in the discussion and sent him from the pitch for 10 minutes on the touchline. Oddly, in spite of their lead and 3 tries, Chingford opted for the 3 pointer to take the score to 24-5.
It had been a rough day at the office, but Brentwood did try and battle on for the sake of their pride. A couple of late penalties and a Chingford yellow card saw them get one final chance at the try line but the maul that initially looked well set disintegrated and with that the game was over.
Chingford on the day were the much better team and worthy winners but Brentwood will know it was not one of their finest displays. As the old cliché goes, "you can't play rugby without the ball" and Chingford's ability to retain possession and ensure any scraps Brentwood had were difficult and untidy saw them run out comfortable winners.

Brentwood have now slipped to 5th in the league, joint with Harpenden in 6th on 57 points and 7 points adrift of Colchester in second. Next week's visitors to King George's are Old Haberdashers who are currently in third on 61 points. Brentwood ran out 38-24 winners in the reverse fixture in October but Old Haberdashers have been in good form since then, winning 8 of their 11 games, and Brentwood will need to put this week's disappointment behind them and pull out a strong home performance if they want to stop the slide down the table.