Match Report
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| Date - 30th October 2004 |
Old Brentwoods 1st XV-v- Millwall 1st XV |
| Essex 2 |
| Old Brentwoods 30 Millwall 30 |
| |
| In this thrilling game that was well fought throughout, both sides could
feel a sense of relief for getting something out of the game but regret
that it wasn't more.
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| Millwall started brightly and were rewarded with a penalty after ten
minutes. The lead was short-lived as the home team began to make their
forward power tell with a try five minutes later from Paul Sier.
The try was unconverted but gave the Old Boys much confidence which
they were quick to use.
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| Good lineout work from Pat Stroud was taken on by Tim Croom, the
momentum from the rolling maul taking the ball close to the Millwall
line. The ball was carried on by Matt Warrilow who set up Chris Reah to
attack the line. A chip over the top of the Millwall defence was
illegally halted and resulted in a penalty try under the posts. This
conversion attempt was also missed.
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| Some good forward play brought the Old Boys back into try-scoring territory
soon after the restart. A finely-worked scrum five metres from the
Millwall line culminated in an opportunist try from Tim Croom. Warrilow's successful
conversion gave the home team a 17-3 lead.
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| This lead was reduced to 17-10 before half-time when Millwall made
the most of some slack defending and got a converted try minutes before
the break.
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| The second half started well for the Old Boys and two successful
penalties from Warrilow extended their lead to 23-10.
The dominance of the forwards, being lead ably by Matt Staines,
provided the backs with far more ball than they have been used to.
Continual success in the lineouts from Croom and Stroud was complemented
by the immoveable scrums.
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| This advantage was all-too-often undone by sloppy play in the
backs, however, and this resulted in the game swinging back to Millwall as
successive errors were exploited by the visitors' rapid three-quarter
line. Two converted tries and a penalty swung the game around in a ten-minute spell as the thirteen-point lead suddenly became a two-point deficit.
However the spirit of the home team overcame this momentum moments
later when a break by Staines was followed up by Stroud, bringing the
Old Boys to the edge of the Millwall line. Warrilow got the ball out
from the base of the ruck to Chris Reah and the captain powered over to
reclaim the lead for the Old Boys. Warrilow converted to extend the lead to five points.
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| This pulsating match was decided with the final movement of the game. An
attempted clearance from behind the Old Boys' game-line was half charged-down by the Millwall scrum-half only for the ball to lob into the arms
of the number 8, who touched down to level the scores. That's
the way it stayed with the attempted conversion falling short.
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| The Old Boys can take much from this result, particularly from the performance of the forwards.
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