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Second
place Brentwood travelled to first place Rochford on Saturday. Rochford
had not been a happy hunting ground for the visitors who were keen to
extend their winning run in the league. Cold and sunny weather made for
excellent playing conditions.
The early exchanges were fierce with both sides committed to attacking
rugby and physical defence. Initially Rochford held the territorial advantage
but gradually the visitors regained parity. Both sides continued to play
fast, aggressive rugby to enjoyment of the large crowd. Both Hilson and
Lewis picked up leg injuries but played on.
After 32 minutes Brentwood forced their way into the home 22 and flanker
Bowyer charged down an attempted clearance kick and followed up to touch
down for the unconverted try. 5-0 to Brentwood.
Rochford tore back into the attack and stretched the Brentwood defence.
Beith was penalised and sent to the sin bin for a high tackle. Rochford
kicked the penalty to the corner and drove the resultant line out ball
over the line for a try which was converted to make the halftime score
7-5 to the home team.
During the interval Hilson had to leave the field, with the limping Lewis
moving to full back and Turner coming on at fly half. These disruptions
and injuries increased the problems the visitors had in holding Rochford
who now had their tails up and were forcing the pace.
Brentwood made a disastrous start to the second half. Within a minute
Rochford kicked through and the ball was not gathered by the visitor’s
defence resulting in an unconverted try – 12-5 to Rochford. Two
minutes later Rochford were awarded a penalty for offside and the successful
kick increased their lead to 15-5.
After 15 minutes Sherwood replaced Partridge at prop. Immediately afterwards
Brentwood second row Jones became the second member of the visiting team
to be sin binned – falling foul of the referee who severely punished
Brentwood’s indiscretions. Brentwood were not able to repeat the
continuity they had shown in the first half but after 20 minutes of the
half their pressure forced Rochford to concede a penalty which was converted
by Turner to reduce the deficit to 18-8.
With 10 minutes remaining Rochford broke out of defence and good handling
and lines of running produced a try under the posts which was duly converted
– 25-8. As the final whistle approached Lewis gathered a long kick
out of defence by Rochford and started a move which, through good handling,
resulted in Abbott scoring an unconverted try in the corner to make the
final score 25-13 to Rochford.
Brentwood will be disappointed with how their play fell away in the second
half but the combination of injuries contributed to this in no small part.
With no league game for this coming Saturday the Brentwood players and
supporters will be hoping that the break will allow time for fitness to
be restored by the time of the next league game – away to local
rivals Thurrock on Saturday 20th December.
Team: R. Hollingworth,
P. Geary, B. Partridge, R. Jones, T. King, J .Metcalfe, S. Bowyer, J.
Beith, A. Bright, F. Lewis, A. Lloyd, B. Abbott, G. Stannard, L. Osonsami
and J. Hilson.
Next Saturday Brentwood are without a first team fixture currently as
it is a cup weekend.
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