After a long period of pleasant rugby spectating conditions, this week that came to an abrupt end as Brentwood made the trip to Braintree in the midst of storms Austen and Boelo on a truly grim Saturday afternoon. Going into the game, Braintree had won in the previous round against Woodford but had lost their opening three fixtures and Brentwood were looking to back up last week’s good performance against Thurrock in front of their small group of dedicated (maybe stupid and definitely soaked…) travelling supporters.

With the rain pelting down, Brentwood were playing into a strong wind in the first half and had the better of the opening ten minutes. In terms of territory and possession Brentwood were dominant but were lacking a cutting edge; once in Braintree’s 22 they struggled to make any real indents and didn’t particularly trouble the try line. In contrast Braintree, having won a turnover, made light work of getting up-field and keeping the ball well, especially given the weather conditions, to score the game’s opening try just before the fifteen-minute mark, 7-0.

As a team who frequently like to try and run it from their own line in an attempt to give the Match Reporter a heart attack, Brentwood often seem to find the transition to wet weather rugby difficult because it tends to require a more structured approach to the game; attempts at 20 yard miss passes and little chips through really not weather appropriate…but unfortunately for Brentwood the opening quarter set the tone in a game where a lot of time and effort was expended getting into Braintree’s half, only to lose the ball and find themselves way back in their own half once again, Braintree playing the smarter rugby and using their wind advantage in the first half to force Brentwood back.

On the 25-minute mark, with a solid foundation from scrum dominance and a couple of quick penalties, Brentwood did finally get over the try line from their route one approach; Alfie Adams with a couple of big carries teeing up Eamon Tiernan to wiggle over for the try, Henry Bird’s conversion levelling the score at 7-7. That lasted all of two minutes though, Brentwood conceding a penalty straight after the restart which Braintree elected to kick, 10-7.

For the remainder of the half Brentwood continued to be their own worst enemies as, in spite of their set piece dominance with an aggressive scrum and a lineout that was functioning pretty well and disruptive on opposition ball, they just could not seem to find a way to use this to their advantage. It was perhaps unsurprising then that when Braintree spied an opportunity for a bit of space on the blindside after a Brentwood attempt to bludgeon it out of their own half broke down, they took it almost seemingly too easily; some neat passing leaving Brentwood completely exposed and Braintree’s lead extended to 17-7 which is how the score remained at half time.

Brentwood’s soggy support were hoping that the break might see a revived team in the second half and briefly, there was a glimmer…With under five minutes of the second half played, Brentwood had a fairly central scrum in Braintree’s half from which they got a good shove on again but this time elected to try some of their backline strike runners who had mostly stood around getting half drowned for the first half…it worked to great success, Henry Bird putting Niall Clifford through a large hole and making it most of the way before offloading for George Cubitt to go in at the corner (I think anyway, my vision was somewhat obscured by driving rain and a wall of umbrellas..), 17-12.

Brentwood’s revival though was short lived after some more sensible kicking from Braintree saw Brentwood with a defensive lineout in their own 22 and the decision going against them for a dummy throw. With the free kick awarded to Braintree, they opted to tap and Brentwood’s defence was completely disjointed, Braintree bundling over for the try to take their lead back out to 22-12.

There was still a good half an hour to play but already it was starting to feel (and had done since the first half to be honest…) that this one was sliding from Brentwood’s grasp as Brentwood reverted to the one up crash to little success. There was however some success coming from the maul, Brentwood enjoying various rumbles that seemed to take a tumble at an inopportune moment fairly often but one such endeavour was finally successful after a further fifteen minutes had elapsed, Dan Suttle emerging from the bottom of the pile for the try and Henry Bird adding the extras to pull it back to a three point game, 22-19.

With about quarter of an hour to go, there was still plenty of time left but if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then by this stage Brentwood should have been sectioned; the constant route one crash ball proving to be straightforward tackling practice for Braintree as Brentwood had seemingly run out of ideas. With the weather and conditions now really deteriorating, it was proving impossible to get any sort of a foothold in the game, Brentwood coughing the ball up too often with Braintree keen to get it straight back into the Brentwood half via the boot and wait for Brentwood to make the error once more.

Brentwood’s day was summed up with the final nail in the coffin right at the death, conceding the penalty at the scrum where they had been in the ascendency all afternoon, Braintree able to get the ball off the pitch for full time.

For Brentwood this game, as you may have gathered, was disappointing with Braintree playing much smarter rugby and it is one lessons need to be learned from should any other named storms decide to make an appearance on a Saturday afternoon.

Brentwood now need to dry themselves off and focus on getting back into their groove next weekend as Bury St Edmunds IIs visit King George’s on what is (at the time of writing) mercifully forecast to be a dry day. Bury St Edmunds IIs have lost 4 of their opening 5 against Rochford, Harlow, Cheshunt and Thurrock, their only win being a big win away at…Braintree. With a good home crowd anticipated for the Challenging MND Charity Day, Brentwood will need to be much better if they don’t want to really drop off the pace at the top end of the table this early in the season.