Old Brentwoods travelled to Basildon for a top of the league clash, having been the only team to have beaten the league leaders this season. Aware of how precious a win would be and still wounded from an over-zealous preseason loss, the Old Boys were charged up for what promised to be a historic game infront of the Basildon VP supporters in perfect weather conditions.
On the blast of the ref’s whistle the Home side kicked off and, despite a clean exit, continued to apply territory pressure with some tactical kicking deep into the Woodies half. With both sides carrying and tackling well, any pre-match jeeters were immediately abandoned by the physicality of the initial exchanges, the Basildon winger given an early warning for an illegal clear out after Fullback Rhys Town was hit after calling the mark.

Unable to escape their own half, Woodies found themselves on the back foot when the Home side were able to slip an offload for their Centre to break the line. Despite covering tackles the ball was shifted wide for Basildon’s first score in the corner. [5-0]

Given the wake up call but unperturbed, Old Brentwoods set off straight from the restart and began threading phases together up the park. Within their opponent’s third and short line out released captain Stu Smyth darting down the sideline. Running out of space, he flung the ball over his shoulder to supporting scrum half George Barrett who dived the ball over the try line, only for his celebrations to be cut short from a controversial forward pass call from the referee.
Bewildered by the call, the Woodies pack began a punishing series of scrums locking the Home team in their 22 and winning the ball back. With rising penalties for ruck and tackle height infringements the Visitors could feel the tide was turning in their favour but were unable to capitalise on pressure, unable to convert on a 3 man overlap opportunity wide and blindside stretch to the line by Bobby Levoir being called double movement.

Under mounting pressure Basildon were eventually able to clear their lines with a panicked high kick down the middle of the field. Misjudging the trajectory, James Sullivan chipped the ball on the half volley into the arms of chasing opponent who shifted the ball to their dangerously quick Fullback who sprinted under the posts for an uncontested and against the flow of play try. [12-0]

Irritated by the unreflective scoreline the boys in blue immediately went back on the attack, moving up the pitch from dominating set piece and releasing Oliver ‘Magic’ Strange through the middle. Finding themselves in a familiar attacking position and testing the defence coast to coast, the Visitor’s finally got their first score with a deep pass to speedster Pat Warriner who used some jinking footwork to bamboozle his opponent and darted through the exposed hole. [12-7]

With momentum in hand again Old Brentwoods went hunting for more points, this time led by a stomping run from centre Harri Williams from deep. Beating several defenders his creativity found himself in open space leading to a series of Harlem Globetrotters-esqe offloads up the field cutting through the scattered tacklers. With advantage and space out wide, Old Brentwoods poised a ruthless attack which was unfortunately cut short by the ref’s whistle – disappointingly calling the play short to deliver a yellow to the Basildon 10.
Sensing blood in the water, the Old Boys stampeded down the field with a tight maul with a subsequent charging Bobby Levoir again being denied his name on the score sheet the ball being held up over the line – although his efforts and duties as front row demolition man awarded him Man of the Match. Trusting the tried and tested approach it wasn’t long until the pack again marched their opponents back, this time remaining unfractured across the line for player coach Matthew Staines claim the try and level the game before halftime. [12-12 HT]

Knowing the game was within their reach the Woodies were keen to get the second half on it’s way. Still a man down and surrendering to the scrum dominance, Basildon reverted to playing ball in hand with heavy carrying but were met with an impenetrable wall of Blue with two threatening line breaks outside being snuffed out by excellent covering tackles from Williams and Warriner.
From an attacking set piece Old Brentwoods were again on the up, shipping the ball wide with some slick handling into space. A clever loop released fullback Rhys Town who dived into the corner breaking the tie, only for the Basildon linesman (from a considerable distance) to shockingly call a foot in touch prior to the grounding for the Visitor’s FOURTH disallowed try of the game.
Furious from the call led to some rare discipline issues from the Boys in Blue, with Basildon nearly adding salt to the wound with an explorative phase coast to coast releasing their Backs from deep only for the final killer pass being knocked on and saving the Visitor’s blushes.
Regardless, Woodies were hungry for retribution and launched a bombardment of attack with a deserved try coming from No8 George Watson tipping an offload to supporting James Sullivan to crash over the line – negating his first half blunder. Tim Mason calmly converted aware of the importance of every point [12-19]

With time running out a knock on from the resulting kick off gave Basildon a much-needed foothold in the dying moments of the game. With the loss of confidence in their chewed up scrummaging and little luck in lineouts, Basildon again set about simplistic tap and go rugby hoping for inspiration with ball in hand. With tempers still high and fatigue setting in, tackle height began to creep up with James Sullivan receiving a team yellow card for an infringement – cementing Dick of the Day for his turbulent afternoon.

Old Brentwood defended tirelessly, feeling the numeric disadvantage and meeting the carries head on. With numerous covering tackles and an obliterating try saver from Warriner in the corner it was only a matter of time before leaks appeared and Basildon were able to manoeuvre the ball wide for the last play of the game. In a carbon copy of the first fixture, it fell to the final conversion to decide the result of the game. With a thunderous 15 man kick charge the ball fell inches from the upright, Old Brentwoods bursting into celebrations. [17-19 FT]

A truly well fought win against a very strong and respected side, and time will tell how important the losing bonus point will be in the final standings. Old Brentwoods now face the only two teams who have beaten them this season, Canvey Island & Billeracy, both at Fort Ashwells.

Author: G Barrett