A gloriously sunny day and another successful end of season Family Funday in full swing saw a large crowd gathered at King George’s for Brentwood’s final game of the league season. Brentwood had beaten this week’s visitors Woodford with a try bonus point on the opening day of the season back in September and would need to repeat the same in order to give themselves a shot at finishing in 3rd place.

With an entire match day squad lunching and drinking on the touchline due to injury, Brentwood had once again called on various players to play out of position and with unfamiliarity across the pitch the group of regular touchline pundits were expecting things to be a little disjointed…

Maybe the scoreboard not working (in what has mostly been a much-improved season for scoreboard functionality) was an omen of things to come but with conditions good for running rugby I’m not sure anyone expected that the score would be 0-0 at half time…Both teams had opportunity, Brentwood with three good chances on the break that they just couldn’t finish and although Woodford probably had more of the possession and territory in spite of playing uphill, they were also unable to trouble the not-working scoreboard. Both teams picked up a yellow card apiece which meant with Dan Suttle’s departure for ten minutes, Brentwood were reduced to having Jack Richards, who has mostly played on the wing this season, as their only lineout option in his very first game as a lineout jumper…On the stroke of half time Woodford missed a penalty in front of the posts and I don’t think I was alone in wondering if it was going to be one of those ‘could be out there until midnight and no one will score’ scenarios…but at least the sun was shining!

The second half started and, with Brentwood now playing up the hill, I will admit I had mostly given up on the win, let alone third place…The opening ten minutes of the second half were also a little stop-start but there were encouraging signs from Brentwood who were starting to make ground in contact and edge the physical battle and, after a good passage of pressure Woodford saw another yellow for too many penalties, Brentwood were able to put the ball in the corner 5 metres out. Jack Richards soared skywards at the back to of the lineout to take Andy Sutton’s long throw and the maul was set, powering over for Alfie Adams to dot down as someone near me asked “hang on, did we just score?!”. Jamie Wyatt added the conversion, 7-0 and after 50-odd minutes of game time we finally had some points!

As it transpired, just getting over the whitewash was a pivotal moment for Brentwood because not three minutes later they added a second. Woodford’s restart had gone out on the full giving Brentwood the scrum back in the middle of the park from which the ball went wide and was crashed up by Alex Williams before being recycled. It was out quickly to Uchenna Okereke who made good ground up the touchline and although the ball then went loose, it was well recovered via what looked suspiciously like a kick-pass from Alfie Adams to Brentwood’s most reluctant rugby player, Alex Roberts who took it to the line before kicking into space in the back field. Chasing hard after his own kick, the bounce was cruel to Woodford’s defender, shooting back at the last minute into the hands of the onrushing Alex who offloaded the ball out of the tackle to the supporting Nathan Killiea to cross for the try. Jamie Wyatt added another two, 14-0.

Brentwood had seemingly now found their flow and four minutes later ran the ball from their own 10 metre line after a scrum, Liam Power finding Alex Roberts in some space to take play up to Woodford’s 10 metre, Alfie Adams and Eamon Tiernan crashing further before Jamie Wyatt put a lovely kick into the corner 5 metres from Woodford’s line. Woodford won their lineout, but the pressure was on, and the ball was dropped in the next play, Kieran Ballinger snaffling the ball and dotting down unopposed for Brentwood’s third, with Jamie Wyatt’s conversion 21-0.

Another three minutes later and Brentwood launched again after another slightly haphazard but ultimately successful lineout had seen Jack Mayes carry into midfield. The ball was recycled, Tom Walker and Alfie Adams adding to the metres before Jamie Wyatt spotted a chink in Woodford’s defensive line to dart through, evading four tackles before finding Kieran Ballinger in support who went over under the sticks, 28-0 with Jamie’s conversion, and suddenly the team who hadn’t looked like scoring had secured a try bonus point.

Of course with twenty minutes to go and this being Brentwood, there’s still always the underlying twinge of panic that there could yet be a stressful finish…but thankfully not this week, even if the try rate did drop off a bit a and it took a further 8 mintues for Brentwood to score their fifth…With momentum now very much with the hosts, Brentwood had got back into Woodford’s 22 but had been held up over the try line. Eamon Tiernan took the resulting goal line drop-out well offloading to Alex Roberts who stepped through a couple of tackles and found Tom Walker in support, shifting it on to Alex Williams who was scragged but got the ball away to Liam Power who determinedly clattered through for a try to round off a strong personal performance in the unfamiliar position of outside centre, 33-0.

With less than ten to go the game was now Brentwood’s but to their credit Woodford didn’t give up and did get a try of their own just before full time meaning the final score was 33-5 and now to eagerly refresh the useless England rugby website to see if our good frenemies Eton Manor had done us a favour at Harlow…Of course, there had to be a spot of drama when said useless England rugby website managed to get the score the wrong way round but eventually, with confirmation that Manor had beaten Harlow, third belonged to Brentwood.

For Brentwood, the first half of this game wasn’t the finest, but the second half really summed up the team spirit this season, and, in the end, some excellent tries were scored to finish the season off on a high in front of a big home crowd.

By my (potentially iffy) maths, Brentwood have fielded 39 players in the first team this season, and it’s been a real testament to all who have played that in spite of injuries (including some really horrible ones), unfamiliarity and playing out of position that Brentwood’s form as a team has never really dipped in what is, as you definitely know by now, a very competitive league. There’s been significantly more highs than lows this season (unless you’re Liane in which case you’re probably looking forward to a well-deserved rest…) and a third place finish feels very deserved – a good improvement on solidly fifth of the last few seasons!