Match report Dagenham 1st XV VS Old Brentwoods' 1st XV

Start of the season and Old Brentwood’s have what is to be hopefully an exciting season ahead with a new Head coach. The squad has also had many changes with new players in and a new captain, James Lennox. With this in mind, the team was excited to get the season underway with a tough opener away to Dagenham 1’s.
The team to face Dagenham had 5 debutants and it was always going to be a tough first 20 minutes as with few pre-season friendlies we needed to gel and work into the game. Old Brentwood’s started the game receiving with the Captain the first to touch the ball running round two players before being brought down with the early signs showing Dagenham were the more physical side.
Although Old Brentwood’s were on the front foot from the off we were making sloppy errors and allowing Dagenham to have the ball and run at us which was creating problems with their centre partnership picking out some holes before shipping it wide with a nippy winger creating some difficulties out wide.
With Dagenham making their mark on the game benefiting from a new look back line, a penalty was conceded and Dagenham went for the corner and looked to use their lineout. With that came the first try from a driving maul taking their pack across the try line for what was the first score of the game however, their 10 missed the kick.
Dagenham had the wind behind their sails and had their eyes on another try not long after exposing our defence out wide with some gas from their winger and over he went for their second try, which was again missed by their 10. Not long after it was the same story again very similar move by Dagenham straight through the hands and out to their pace man who just managed to nip round the defence to make it 15-0 as the 10’s day got worse as he again failed to capitalise from the tee.
Old Brentwoods after two well worked tries from Dagenham rallied and new they had to up the momentum in the game and turn the screws. The forwards took this upon themselves with some great running from the Vice-Captain Wilko and Steve to mention a few, creating holes in the defence however the end product still wasn’t quite there at one stage celebrating a try which was 5 meters short of the line [Kyle].
Eventually the try came from off the back of the scrum with an 8 pickup taken up by Darragh who created the platform before eventually the forwards worked their way up to the line and Steve bundled over the line for a try opening his account for the season. You could see the tides were changing with Old B’s now looking the stronger team with procession and the tempo at our pace. The kick was slotted dead between the sticks by Luke [aka Kem from love Island]. Half time fell shortly after making the score 15 – 7 at the interval.
Old Brentwood’s ended the half with the impetus and now was a chance to fully utilise our strengths with the forwards continuing to run hard lines at the Dagenham’s defence across the pitch. Debutant Kyle and Jonesy loved the chance to have a run and were working hard across the pitch. The backs seen cleaner ball and Jamie was now allowed to start having room to run his back line.
The joint work rate between the forwards and the backs was tiring the Dagenham team and eventually after a good 8 phases of play Debutant Jonesy took his chance to burst over the line and score his first ever Try for old Brentwood’s and by the look on his face he was buzzing. Kem took the kick quickly and made the score 15 – 14 to Dagenham.
The forwards of Old B’s did not give Dagenham the chance to rest and with the great support work from the backs also with Vice Captain Nick and Kem putting in some fine hits when Dagenham tried to counter it was proving hard for the home team to get out of their half for long. Eventually the burden of all the work got to a couple of players and this introduced Matt Hardy to second row moving Steve to 8 and Wilko to prop and also Sim on at centre for his 1st XV Debut.
The pressure continued throughout the second half and the Dagenham chances were becoming sparse with some good defensive work with turnovers coming from notably Clarky and Steve who were a persistent thorn in the rucks for Dagenham who were slowly running out of steam. The persistence of Old B’s who were still trailing coming up to the 60 minute mark was paying off with penalties coming quick and fast as more errors were occurring from Dagenham. Some quick thinking from Wilko from just inside the 22 metre line with a quick tap from the penalty lead to him steaming over a few Dagenham players who were slow to react and Old B’s were now in the lead, a deserved try for the hard working 8. With Luke off it left us with Nick taking up the mantle from the tee and it was never in doubt as he slotted home to make it 15-21.
The game was far from over with just 6 points in it and Old B’s knew this keeping up the tempo and till the end with some great work from Liam, Zach and Rhys who were dealing with any attempted counter which was coming from a chip from their 10. Eventually Darragh managed to get some clean ball and with some nimble feet from Wilko stepping two Dagenham players and some questionable dummies, the ball came to Liam on the wing who carried the attempted tackle from the winger for a good 20 metres to just inside the 22. With the pressure mounting on Dagenham it required some great defence to halt us in our tracks a number of time with our ex first team captain getting eaten up by their 15 to prevent the try which felt imminent.
Eventually the pressure had gathered again an offload from Wilko, which was pushed forward by Dagenham and pounced on by Dave who was able to redeem himself after being hit back 5 minutes earlier. With the score now over 7 points clear and the bonus point gained, the pressure was off Nick to slot home the extra 2 points, he coolly placed it over the sticks.
With under 10 minutes to go Dagenham had a late resurgence and applied some pressure on the Old B’s but the team learning from their earlier mistakes stood up and saw the game out with a great spell of defending before the file whistle blew. A game played in great spirit by both teams and a well deserved win by the Old B’s made difficult by a determined Dagenham outfit. The comeback from Old Brentwood’s was pleasing to see for what is a new look squad and provides a great platform to build on for a potentially promising season.

Half Time 15- 7
Full Time 15-28

Tries – Pearson, Jones, Wilkinson, Embling
Conversions- Taylor (2), Clarke (2)
Pentalties- N/A
Man of the Match – S.Wilkinson [Pictured]
Dick of the Day - D. Embling