Chelmsford turned the form book upside down with a terrific win against promotion seeking Saffron Walden at Coronation Park last weekend. With Ipswich winning at Holt this meant that they had been crowned champions, even though they still have one game left to play against local opposition South Woodham Ferrers on 26th April. Defeat consigned Saffron Walden to play off against Old Priorians from London 2 North West for the second promotion spot.

Chelmsford scored 26 points in the second half to turn round a half time deficit of 12 – 23. In all the home side scored 6 tries to the visitor’s 4. The visitors had no answer to Chelmsford’s dominant second half display, which was down to a tremendous all round display of guts and determination against all the odds. With his squad down to the bare bones, and losing wing Tatenda Garure and centre Rhys Mason to injuries during the game, Coach Eddie Gooby was a delighted man after the game. He said “What a fantastic way to finish the season. I am so pleased for the players that they put in this display today to prove to everyone what a great squad and team spirit we have in the club. Only those who have been around this squad this season know how hard they and the coaching staff have worked. Despite having to make many changes to the team on a weekly basis due to many long term injuries and other commitments, 43 players have been used this season and they have given everything for the cause. In beating a good Saffron Walden team we can say that we have beaten the top 3 teams that have finished above us in the league, and finishing fourth this year has been a great achievement for this squad. This was no fluke result today we were the better team and deserved the win and the belief we can carry forward into next season will hopefully push us on to finish in a higher league position next year. Finally on behalf of all the coaching staff and the players, I would like thank our loyal supporters who have passed kicked and scored every point with us this season.”

Saffron Walden started off the game confidently and the match was only two minutes old when Chelmsford were penalised for being offside and minutes later the home side gave away another penalty for not rolling away at a ruck, so they found themselves 6 – 0 down. All the early pressure came from the visitors and their backs were combining well with their forwards to produce some good running rugby. Against the run of play Chelmsford scored a well taken try when Rhys Mason made a good break, he slipped the ball to centre Ollie Wright and he fed full back Jamie Ash, who showed a great turn of speed to score behind the posts. With fly half Simon Hoult converting the try, Chelmsford took a 7 – 6 lead. The visitors had a chance to regain the lead on the 25 minute mark following a penalty against the home side, but the kick was missed. Not to be outdone just a few minutes later they scored an unconverted try from a driving maul to regain the lead 11 – 7. Then a clever overhead chip kick from Simon Hoult, resulted in him re-gathering the ball and with wing Ben Brunt in support he fed the ball to substitute Rhys Whitelock who sped away from the cover defence to score a great try in the right hand corner for the home side to regain the lead at 12 – 11.

Chelmsford then found themselves on the wrong side of the penalty count and the visitors took advantage of this in the final 12 minutes of the half. A quick tap penalty saw Saffron Walden regain the lead when they scored a converted try underneath the posts. Prop Phil De Champ was then yellow carded for not retiring 10 metres after another quick tap penalty and then just before the half time whistle, a catch and drive from a line out resulted in another try taking the visitors into a half time lead of 23 - 12.

The second half was only two minutes old when Chelmsford took advantage of some turnover ball and centre Olly Wright picked up the loose ball and had a clear run to the line and with Simon Hoult converting, the arrears were reduced to 19 – 23. Chelmsford then gave away a penalty for not rolling away at the ruck and the lead was increased again to 7 points. Chelmsford for the first time this season through fly half Simon Hoult, began to apply pressure on the opposition by hoisting long high kicks and using the wind to keep the visitors penned into their own half. With Chelmsford pressing hard on the visitor’s line, the visitor’s number 12 was sent to the sin bin by the referee for speaking out of turn. 20 minutes into the half Chelmsford levelled the scores at 26 points each, when Olly Wright weaved his way over for his 2nd try much to the delight of the large home crowd.

It was now game on and suddenly Chelmsford found the confidence to run at the opposition and with mistakes being made, Chelmsford scored 2 tries in 10 minutes. The first came from a line out, the ball went down the back line, Rhys Whitleock was in support of Jamie Ash and a converted try was scored by the posts, taking the home side into a 33 – 26 lead. Then following a series of rucks on the visitor’s line, prop Phil De Champ picked up a loose ball and went over for an unopposed try. The score was now 38 – 26. In between the two tries, Jamie Ash was unlucky not to score, when he knocked the ball on over the line and then the referee sent two players to the sin bin, one from each side for an off the ball incident. At this stage Saffron Walden were throwing caution to the wind and after some good interplay amongst their backs, they scored a try in the left hand corner, thus reducing the lead to 38 – 31.

Chelmsford were now hanging on for the last few minutes of the game and found themselves down to 13 men, when the referee sent both Chris Hoult to the sin bin for not retiring 10 metres, then one minute later, Jamie Ash joined him for slowing the ball down. Despite this Chelmsford managed to hang on for the last few minutes and record a well deserved win in an exciting and enthralling game.

To cap a great day at Chelmsford the 3rd /Development team won the BL Merit Table shield with 13 u18s in the squad and the 4th team/Vets won the BL Merit table 5 cup.