The Eels Tenacious Ten rolled into town, expecting a tough game with a lot of boys injured or on Broncos duty, it was time to roll up their sleeves & defend the fortress of Old Brentwoods.

Invicta kicked off proceedings with a short kick, trying to catch Brentwood cold, but Ben Kennedy was quick on the draw, running onto the ball at pace, stepping the Panthers kicker before racing the length of the field to score, Ollie Woods slotted the extras.

Eels 6 Panthers 0

Brentwood gathered the restart & started unloading the heavy artillery, with Will Hammond & Raymond Kanyasa crashing it up the middle.

20 metres out Joe Ridgewell shipped the ball out to Harry Crellin in the halves, who drew the defence before passing to Ollie Woods who ran a hardline from Full Back, which saw him break through to score.

Eels 12 Panthers 0

Another creative kick off from Invicta, saw them reclaim the ball & begin their seige on the Eels line, which they eventually broke through to open their account....conversion missed.

Eels 12 Panthers 4

Eels restarted the game, with some bone crunching defence, from Charlie Brand & Kieran Mooney, six tackles made it was our chance to throw the ball around.

Brentwood's French winger Rohann Bankole came in for some great scoots, showing real flair, making good metres with his electric pace, before Ben Kennedy tipped the ball on to William Hammond who crashed over to score.

Eels 18 Panthers 4

As the first half came to an end, some fatigue started to set in for the Eels, as the freshly rotated Panthers pack brought some extra intensity, before moving the ball wide to score.

HT Eels 18 Panthers 10

The Eels kicked off to start the second half & it was clear Invicta had had the hair dryer treatment at half time, as they come flying out the blocks.

Poor discipline from Brentwood gave the Panthers all the encouragement they needed, the momentum of the game totally shifted as Invicta ran in 3 unanswered tries.

Eels 18 Panthers 26

Q - How do you stop a team once they have the momentum. How does a team that is physically drained & battered with no interchanges available, go to the well again to find something extra.

As the boys huddled under the posts & the Panthers conversion sailed over, they looked at each over in the eyes & they saw teammates that were willing to go again & sacrifice themselves for the team.

Woods went for the short kick off, which Brand regathered for the Eels, we had the ball & it was time to play, Raffle made a powerful run to go close, before Hammond crashed over to score under the posts.

Eels 22 Panthers 26

The referee confirmed that there was 8 minutes left on the clock, still time, but patience was needed.

Despite being heavily fatigued, the Eels boys were thinking clearly, completing two back to back sets, they had the Panthers pinned on their line & they were starting to rock.

As Invicta started to defend the third set on the bounce, the Eels kept knocking on the door but couldn't break through, fifth & last, 1 minute on the clock....Harry Crellin from 20 metres out slots through a peach of a grubber to the corner which has the Panthers defence scrambling across & the Eels bearing down......it was almost like time slowed down as out of no where came Ollie Woods flying down the wing from Full Back, to win the race & pick up the bouncing ball at pace & slide over to score a try that any Super League team would have been proud of.

Full Time. Eels 26 Panthers 26

Eels Team

Rohann Bankole
Charlie Brand
Harry Crellin
William Hammond
Raymond Kanyasa
Ben Kennedy
Kieran Mooney
Nathan Raffle
Joe Ridgewell
Ollie Woods

Well done to the Eels Tenacious Ten....... your spirit, determination & skill today reminded me of why I love this game so much....absolute warriors everyone of you.

Training next Saturday boys, plenty to work on, but with that spirit & our Broncos boys still to come back into the frame.....hold on tight, this is gonna be one hell of a season.