Chelmsford made the short journey to Brentwood with a strong team and high hopes of giving the league leaders their first defeat of the season. Playing downhill in the first half, the Blueboys struggled to find their rhythm and struggled to get hold of the ball in the early stages of the game. Penalty followed penalty and eventually the referee lost patience and showed Joel Barker an early yellow card for playing the ball on the floor. Despite committed tackling from the Blueboys, eventually Brentwood went over for the first try after 15mins.

Chelmsford gradually started to get into the game and looked the better team whenever they had ball in hand. The second yellow of the game went to Brentwood following a high tackle on Noah Pyne who was in a good attacking position following a great intercept from Jack Lavin on the Brentwood 10m line.

Moving the ball nicely, Chelmsford finally broke the Brentwood defence with Ugo Eze scoring for the Blueboys on 24 mins (converted by Morrish). The lineout proved troublesome all afternoon for Chelmsford and a poor throw while the Blueboys were pinned in their own 22 that lead to Brentwoods second try. Brentwood missed the conversion to take a 5-point lead. Chelmsford narrowed the gap to 2 points with a penalty and this was how the first half ended.

Half time Brentwood 12-10 Chelmsford.

With Chelmsford not getting the run of the decisions in the 1st half, David Hyett made it very clear to the team that he was looking for a better performance playing up the hill. The message clearly had an impact as Chelmsford pretty much scored from the kick off with Lavin once again being the catalyst with a fantastic run from deep. The move was finished under the posts by Ronan Kelly and converted by Jamie Morrish to put Chelmsford into the lead for the first time in the game.

For a short time, the game became a bit of a kicking contest but once Chelmsford got ball in hand, it only looked a matter of time before we scored again. Some lovely rugby with the ball moving quickly through hands saw Jamie Morrish go over for a try under the posts which he converted bringing the score to 12-24 to Chelmsford with 17 minutes left to play.

However, the errors (and the penalties) began to creep back into Chelmsford’s play and Brentwood scored twice to even the score at 24 all with 10 minutes to go. Jamie Morrish punished the hosts with a penalty to retake the lead but two yellow cards saw the Blueboys reduced to 13 men and Brentwood took the lead with a final try with only 2 minutes left in the game.

Chelmsford never gave up and gave it everything in the closing minutes. Brentwood lost two more players to yellow cards (taking the total for the game to six!) as they did everything they could to stop Chelmsford stealing the win. A knock on ended Chelmsford’s chances and Brentwood took the win to stay unbeaten at the top of the league.

Chelmsford can be very proud of their performance today and they showed once again that they can mix it with the very best when they have the players available. Hopefully the boys can carry the momentum of a fantastic performance on to the next weeks game as they host Woodford at Coronation Park.

Full Time Brentwood 31-27 Chelmsford.

Photo Credit - James Peck