Chelmsford opened their league season campaign with a heavy defeat at near neighbours Thurrock. The game was effectively over as a contest by half time, when the home side scored 4 tries without reply to establish a lead of 26 – 3. A further 4 tries were scored in the 2nd half by Thurrock, which meant that they ran out worthy winners by 50 points to 30. After 15 minutes of the 2nd half, Thurrock were leading by 40 points to 6 and Chelmsford were looking at the possibility of a heavy thumping, however, the visitors dug deep into their reserves and managed to salvage something from the game, when they themselves scored 4 tries in the last quarter of the game to register an important bonus point.

Chelmsford gave debuts to 5 players, notably Charly Inwood at centre, George Woods No.8, Luke Williams, back row, Colm Higgins, 2nd row and substitute prop, Paul Bullivant. Also several members of the squad were unavailable, notably prop Stephen Prest, centre Adam Cunnah and fly half Zain Manan. Also Chelmsford were dealt a blow from the previous week’s friendly game, when skipper, Paul Redford ,broke his fibula in his right leg and he will be out for at least 10 weeks, plus influential back row forward, Josh Cavey, suffered a recurrence of his shoulder injury sustained in training and he will be sidelined for up to 6 weeks. Chris Hoult who had effectively retired at the end of last season was a late call up to the squad.

Director of Rugby, Eddie Gooby, said after the game: “With 5 debutants playing today, it was always going to take time for the players to gel, Thurrock seemed to score every time we made a mistake and the scoreboard just ran away from us. We have to learn to close up shop when things are going against us and close the game down. Two things stood out today, one being very poor and the other which leaves me with confidence that we can pull things together. Our first up tackling was very poor, we have to work on chopping the opposition down and stopping the offload. Secondly being 50 – 11 down at one stage, we showed the character, skill and commitment to score 19 unanswered points and register a bonus point. We conceded too many points last season, so we need to tighten up our defence if we are to stay in this highly competitive league.”

In the first minute of the game Chelmsford had a chance to add 3 points, when Thurrock were penalised for crossing, but Simon Hoult narrowly missed with his kick. The early pressure was coming from the home side and from a loose clearance kick by Chelmsford, the ball was worked across the park by Thurrock and helped by some missed tackles, Thurrock’s full back scored a well taken try underneath the posts and with the conversion the score was 7 – 0 to the home side after 15 minutes of play. Chelmsford then made a mistake in defence when a long clearance kick from Thurrock was allowed to roll into the corner just a metre from Chelmsford’s line. A couple of minutes later, Thurrock were awarded a scrum near to the Chelmsford line and they exerted pressure on the Chelmsford scrum, driving them backwards for an unconverted try. Minutes later, Simon Hoult reduced the arrears to 12 – 3, after Thurrock were penalised at the scrum. The last 10 minutes of the half saw Thurrock score two further converted tries, both again from poor clearance kicks and that saw the home side go into the interval with a 26 – 0 lead.

Early into the 2nd half, Simon Hoult slotted over a penalty kick to reduce the arrears to 26 – 6, but any chances of a comeback were effectively dashed after 15 minutes, when Chelmsford lost the ball at the scrum, Thurrock took advantage of this and worked the ball through the phases and broke through the Chelmsford defence to score a converted try making the scoreline, 33 points to 6. Four minutes later, Thurrock’s No.8 then broke from a scrum and passed inside to the man in support, who jinked inside the Chelmsford defence to record another converted try to make the score 40 – 6. A few minutes later Chelmsford scored their first try, when Simon Hoult took a long looping pass out wide to score an unconverted try near the right hand corner taking the score to 40 - 11. Thurrock then went over for their 7th and 8th tries in the space of two minutes to bring the score to 50 points to 11.

Chelmsford then showed in the last 10 minutes of the game what they could do if they applied pressure on their opponents and taking the game to the opposition, by scoring 3 tries in 9 minutes of play. First full back Jamie Ash scored what was probably the best try of the afternoon when he ran through the centre of the field, outpacing the Thurrock defence with his blistering pace, then a break by No 8 George Woods saw him feed the ball to Simon Hoult, who was tackled, and Thurrock were then yellow carded for killing the ball. A quick tap penalty was taken and a cross kick from Simon Hoult was gathered by Jamie Ash, who scored his 2nd try of the afternoon and then finally Thurrock kicked the ball dead, thinking the referee was going to blow her whistle for full time, so she awarded a 5 metre scrum to Chelmsford and then from a quick tap penalty, 2nd row Nick Sany barged his way over the line for Chelmsford’s 4th and bonus point try.

This coming weekend sees Chelmsford play last season’s London North East 2 champions, Saffron Walden, who got off to a winning start last weekend against Sudbury, who finished runners up to them and were also promoted to this league through the play offs. This should prove to be an exciting contest and one that Chelmsford will be looking at to record their first victory of the season. The kick off is at 3pm at Coronation Park.