A compelling local derby, in front of a large Christmas crowd, saw Chelmsford complete the double over their local rivals, but not before they were given a scare from a committed Woodham side. Indeed Chelmsford found themselves 12 – 3 down at one stage, but they rallied with a fine 2nd half performance that saw them run out deserved winners by 16 – 12. This win sees them retain their leadership at the top of the table by 1 point over Campion.
Woodham started the stronger side and certainly showed more aggression from the outset, with some good driving play from their forwards. The visitors had to dig deep into their resources, with 8 front line personnel being injured or unavailable for this crucial derby game. The game couldn’t have got off to a worse start for them when they were penalised for a deliberate knock on and from the ensuing line out, Woodham showed their characteristic strengths, when from a catch and drive from the line out, they used the driving maul to perfection, resulting in a well deserved try from second row, Dave Langley, suitably converted by Jack Reeve to make it 7 – 0 to the home side. Woodham were then penalised for not releasing and fly half Simon Hoult made no mistake from 45 metres out to reduce the deficit to 7 – 3.
Woodham continued to dominate the game in the forwards, adapting to the muddy conditions better than their opponents, however, to Chelmsford’s credit they defended well to nullify the Woodham pressure. After 30 minutes they were penalised for being off side at the ruck and with the penalty kick going to the corner, Chelmsford were then penalised again for being adjudged off side at the line out. Securing possession from the scrum, the ball went through the phases and eventually Woodham were rewarded with their second try through James Wilson, taking them into a 12 – 3 lead.
The second half was just a few minutes old when Woodham were penalised for trying to turn the scrum and from this Simon Hoult slotted over his 2nd penalty from 33 metres out, to reduce the deficit to 12 – 6. Thirteen minutes into the 2nd half and following a line out, the ball came down the Chelmsford back line and with full back, Jamie Ash, coming into the line at speed, he saw a gap in the home side’s defence to gallop underneath the posts for a well taken try and with the successful conversion from Simon Hoult, Chelmsford found themselves in the lead by 13 – 12. Immediately after the try, Chelmsford had two great opportunities to increase their lead through left wing Tristan Olive, but on both occasions he was tackled just short of the line.
The set scrums were an area where Chelmsford had parity over their opponents and together with an improved kicking game in the 2nd half they gradually took the game to their opponents, and as a consequence were able to apply the squeeze on the Woodham pack, and with Chelmsford’s back row now in ascendancy, the home side found it difficult in getting out of their own 22 metre area, primarily because they got stuck in the muddy conditions and could not find a way out, due to the pressure exerted by Chelmsford.
Simon Hoult had a chance to increase the lead on the half hour mark, but from fully 45 metres out he hit the post, but a few minutes later Woodham were penalised again and this time he was successful from 35 metres to take Chelmsford into a 16 – 12 lead, which they never looked likely to lose. The last 10 minutes of the game saw the visitors continue with the stranglehold over their opponents and they managed to close out the game fairly comfortably.
Chelmsford resume their league duties in the New Year with a home game against Basildon on 10th January.

Coaches Comments

Five games ago the squad spoke about the turning conditions under foot at this time of year, as other teams would expect us to fall off the pace. We set our goals and challenges and to a man in our squad we achieved what we had set out to do. Winning four out of five games is a massive achievement for us and the level of play was outstanding .

I have never known in my time at Chelmsford the amount of changes we are having to make on a weekly basis . Two or three maybe but during this run it’s been 8 or 9 and today was no exception.
Today's second half performance had everything we have been working on in training plus complete control for 40 minutes to come out on top of a really tough local derby in very testing muddy conditions against a very determined Woodham team. I do not normally single out players but today our front row was out of this world for 80 minutes they gave us go forward ball and as a pack we grew into the game and grounded out territory as we took control of a much bigger pack.
Two weeks ago we went to Diss and came away with several lessons learnt. There were a number of players who experienced that game and today they grew up and fronted up and deserved the big win for us. We have had players making their first team debuts this season and in Jamie Hines he was the 41st player that I have used this season. I want to go on record and say thank you to all the players who have pulled on a blue and white shirt this season, it’s been a fantastic effort and a well deserved squad performance.

We now have a welcome rest over Christmas to let our bodies recouperate and get ready for the New Year. Finally I must say what a pleasure it was yesterday for myself and the players to have so many Chelmsford supporters at the game, who never stopped believing in the Blueboys and cheered us all on unto the final whistle and deserved victory.