Many congratulations to all the squad who participated in an excellent festival, playing some great rugby and giving many of our developing players a chance to shine.

Our pool games saw us maintain a core 4 players in the side, 2 forwards and 2 half backs and the rotating all other players at half time - this seemed to work well, keeping the team fresh and allowing the whole squad to participate.

Our first pool game saw us take on an unknown Bishops Stortford side, after a scoreless first half we opened up with some powerful runners in the second half, playing with the slope, Alfie Brown and Rory Gray both picking up a try each to get us off to a winning start.

A back to back game then against Chelmsford was a much closer affair, our defence being tested by some strong Chelmsford runners. Some good passing play was on show but a few errors crept in and Chelmsford got a couple of tries on the board. Again making the half time changes saw Michael Curry get his first try of the day then Alfie with his second. Chelmsford pulled one back to take the lead but Zak Burke saved the day with a strong run and touchdown. A drawn game that was going to decide the final pool positions.

After a long break we finally took on Eton Manor for the last pool game - a must win game if we were to top the pool. Some strong rucking and great running from Ethan Gray and Conor McLeavy set up three more tries from Michael Curry and one more from Alfie Brown to comfortably win the match and top the group. Into the Trophy Semi Final !

Pool Results

Brentwood 10 Bishops Stortford 0
Brentwood 15 Chelmsford 15
Brentwood 20 Eton Manor 0

The Semi Final saw us up against a Westcliff side we have met many times this season - a tense game - the hardest of the day, even with a bit of niggle ( Ethan standing up to no nonsense !!) Westcliff took the lead but we reacted well from the restart splitting the defence with a well practiced restart move for Michael to touch down. It seemed to be tied for an eternity and the prospect of deciding the game on a toss of a coin was looming when Michael once again took the ball on and wrestled through a number of defenders to touch down. We needed to defend as best we could from the restart as they had the slope with them and were breaking out with strong runners - it looked like they had scored to tie the match but the ref saw the ball being knocked on over the line and with that blew full time.

Semi Final
Brentwood 10 Westcliff 5

And so into the final, as the results had played out we were up against Chelmsford again. We explained that our defense had been poor when we played them before and that was the single biggest are a the team needed to focus on. Get that right and the game was ours for the winning. We picked a strong team, all the squad had contributed in getting us to the final but we were desperate to finish off the season with a win.
From the start the team were pumped up and didn’t give any ground for the Chelmsford midfield. Zak Burke putting in some great tackles. With great physicality at the breakdown Rory picked up and opened the scoring with a great run. Chelmsford restarted and once again were hit by the Brentwood brick wall, barely managing to get into our half. Conor, playing a blinder ( as he had been all day) picked off the base of a ruck and released Alfie to power through for our second try. Then it was Luke Pembroke’s turn, after fearlessly tackling all day, he showed his turn of pace and sped off down the left wing to score a critical try. The Chelmsford heads dropped, three tries down at half time and the game slipping away, the second half was no easier for them with Michael getting our fourth from close range, we swapped all the squad on for the final few plays and the game was secure....TROPHY WINNERS !

Final Score
Brentwood 20 Chelmsford 0

Congratulations to the following winners today:

Alfie Brown
Luke Pembroke
Aidan Hollingworth
Zac Burke
Conor McLeavy
Michael Curry
Pat Bourbery
Rory Gray
Harrison Powell
Lewis Briant
Jacob Syndercombe
Oliver Strange
Emily Bowlt
Ethan Gray