Match report - OBRFC II v.s Thurrock III

On Saturday, Old Brentwood’s welcomed Thurrock in the hope of avenging a heavy, early season defeat of some 40-odd points.

With a few returning players, the home side named an ‘experienced’ side as well as a particularly strong bench.

The warm-up was a focused but sensible one; important to keep some in reserve with an average age of about 35-36.

Thurrock kicked off and a scrappy start followed. This was until Kaino made a great burst and break from 10 before releasing Ish to dart over before slotting the extras himself (7-0).

The Old Boys were finding some real rhythm with some lovely breaks and creative play that the opposition were struggling to cope with.

The next score came from a line-out just short of Thurrock’s 22. A sharp interchange between Keogh and Johnny (42 years young) allowed Keogh to cut down the wing before being stopped short of the line. Deano ran a lovely line to crash over from close range. Ish added the extras again (14-0).

Some lovely hands at one stage looked to have released Barton but he was very nearly killed by a no arms tackle. This gave us a nice rest though – every cloud.

The home side’s scrum was getting stronger and stronger as the half progressed with Charlie and Bear rolling back the years. The pack was making good ground and allowing the backs to have a lot of quick, clean ball. Eventually, after some patient play, the Old Boys broke down the left wing with Ish offloading to DTC who in turn offloaded to Kaino. Some good hands then released Keogh to ‘beat 3 men and carry 2 over the line’. Ish converted (21-0).

Thurrock threatened at the end of the half only for Matt Staines (awesome throughout as ever and bleeding of course) to make a great turn-over on the 5-metre line.

HT 21-0

At half time, the Old Boys made some changes with Roy replacing Darragh, Roland replacing Barton and Ashby replacing Bear.

With the slope and wind now in their favour, the home side started the second period.

Roland was quite keen to make the first hit; focused and as determined as ever he lined up his first tackle (gum-shield in hand), asking the entire team to cover for him. Kaino’s kick-off was perfect, straight to the player in-front of Roland. He started his run-up to Smashville………..and got stepped!

The Old Boys regathered possession and made their way up the pitch. After a few well-worked pods and hammers, Ashby crashed through the defence to extend the lead – Ish converted again (28-0).

The restart went straight to Johnny who Thurrock kindly gave a good 20 seconds the juggle the ball before knocking on. A few phases later, Thurrock were awarded the scrum on OB’s 22.

The home side won the scrum against the head. Deano broke blind and threw a great dummy before offloading in the tackle to DTC who continued the run down the right before passing inside to Kaino in support. Some great, fluid hands followed with passes to Roy, then to Boycey and finally out to Ish to simply catch and score what would surely have been try of the season. But no…………..he knocked it on!

The Old Boys won the next scrum against the head again though and Roy, wearing the no. 2 shirt crashed under the posts leaving a number of bodies on the floor from the impact. Ish converted again of course (35-0).

The next 5-10 minutes were taken up by one scrum that was reset about 20 times and a customary injury to Dan Sav. This rest for the backs helped nicely as they ran in a couple of tries in quick succession.

First up was Ish who completed his brace after a nice backs move; followed by Roland who ran through about around 8 players, finding as much contact as possible before going under the posts to score a try that the ref seemed excited to award – laying on the floor himself to blow his whistle and join in the fun!! Ish easily converted both to make the score 49-0.

Quirky was really keen to score but unfortunately was a bit too keen. He gathered a delicate chip from Kaino and ran over to score only to for it to be disallowed for being offside.

Shortly after, another good move from the pack released Kaino to step a few players before scoring a lovely try for Ish to convert – 56-0.

With seconds to go, the home side was awarded a penalty on Thurrock’s 5-metre line. The forwards simply walked over the line for Deano to touch down. Ish missed his final conversion but the ref gave the 2 points anyway for such a dominant display, very nice of him.

FT – 63-0

The score-line didn’t actually do Thurrock any justice as they competed well throughout and could have had a couple of tries themselves if it wasn’t for some great tackling from the home side.

Lots of fun was had by all. Well done to everyone for playing, Bazza for leading the team superbly, happy birthday Johnny and here’s to Ish for his 26 point haul and for ruining the day by refusing to score the best try ever seen in OB history!!!!

All the leaves are brown………………..