Match Report

OLD BOYS TURN PRESSURE INTO POINTS

Old Brentwoods continued their impressive form of late in a very well contested game against Basildon 2^nd XV on Saturday at Ashwells Road.

 You would never have guessed that this was a friendly from the opening exchanges where some lively play from both packs was marked by some very liberal rucking.  Both sides kept their patience & a pattern emerged where the Old Boys tried to pin Basildon back in their own 22 but the in-form Basildon backs returned the kicks with interest.

Inspirational Play

There then followed a number of inspirational hits from Old boys’s forwards Womersley, Buchanan and man of the match Mullen.  This gave the blues the resolve to take the game to their visitors with the ball in hand which proved more productive.  The home team forced a penalty in their opponent’s 22 & although Cutmore missed his first chance to open the scoring, he made no mistake with the second just minutes later.

From the ensuing kick-off, Mullen & Reah broke through the Basildon gain line with some very clever lines of running.  This opened the defence up to allow Old Brentwoods centre Tentner, who had followed up with a great support run, to power over under the posts. All of a sudden, Old Brentwoods had turned their possession into points and the score was 10-0. A further well-taken penalty was added shortly after by Cutmore and Basildon were looking rattled.

Sin-Binning

The home side took advantage of an opponents’ sin-binning to further turn the screw and were letting their rugby do the talking. Some fine breaks from Davies, Mullen & Buchanan again were ably supported by the backs who were enjoying quick, clean possession.

The Blues kept the visitors pinned back in their own half and full-back Cutmore cleverly chipped through to add a converted try to his tally after the forwards had set up a good platform with some excellent work from pack-leader Stroud and hooker Davies. The score was 20-0 & it was half-time.

Second Half Comeback

Basildon, playing down the slope in the second half and back up to 15 men came back into the game and scored a very well-worked try with some fine interplay from their pacey backs.

The Old Boys knew they were in for a game, but they maintained their composure.  There followed a good tussle between 2 very determined teams, both with very well-marshalled defences.  There was a lot of action in both 22’s, but each team always seemed to have the extra tackler.  Both teams looked more threatening from the quick, clean possession from the scrum at the set-piece, but the ball from the lineout proved slightly scrappier.

Clear Cut Chances

Old Brentwoods probably had the more clear cut chances in the second half notably with Raymond & Hannaway coming close, but that is not to deny that Basildon hadn’t come back into the game very well. Ultimately, the Old Boys had made better use of their possession and were there in numbers when the pressure was on.