Chingford 12 - 19 Brentwood

Tries James Croxon 2, Henry Bird 1
Con Henry Bird 2

Brentwood secured their 2nd league win of the season 19-12, in appalling weather conditions, against a very determined Chingford side. Brentwood opened the scoring in only the second minute with Tommy Watson timing his pass to perfection to allow Henry Bird a clear run to the line. With the conversion being added, this was the perfect start for the boys.

This excellent start was soon marred by the loss of skipper Max Costello through injury, and this led to the early introduction of winger James Croxon as the team was re-shuffled. Brentwood continued to move the ball well in the first half and with the forwards being dominant at the set piece they were able to score 2 more tries with James Croxon marking his league debut with a brace of well taken tries.

Chingford are well respected by this Brentwood team, as they know they possess a host of dangerous players, and playing into the strong wind in the second half was always going to be a tricky proposition.

As the weather worsened Brentwood were forced onto the back foot with Chingford fighting for every piece of possession and their pack started to make inroads. Following a couple of further injuries, Brentwood were momentarily down to 13 men and they defended heroically to keep Chingford at bay until eventually the home sides persistance paid off with a well worked converted score. As the conditions deteriorated further, Brentwood were facing a resurgent opposition and playing into the face of a monsoon of biblical proportions!!

The Brentwood boys were struggling to keep possession and were guilty of trying to be too expansive, resulting in lots of handling errors. As they continued to defend their line Chingford launched one last attack and scored a try with the Chingford fly halve touching down for a well earned try in the corner. The missed conversion brought the final whistle but Brentwood had deservedly held on to secure a hard fought victory.

Many thanks to the Chingford boys for showing genuine concern over the injuries suffered to the Brentwood boys. This was a very good game of rugby, excellently refereed, played in horrendous conditions, but most importantly played in an excellent spirit by both sides.