Pitchero

Writtle Wanderers II

Witham II

Tries

N Frost, S Holloway (3), Unknown (3), A Beer, D Smith, M Vidler

Conversions

J Cox (5), M Vidler

Sat 12 Jan 14:00 - The Shepherd Neame Essex Merit Table - Division 6 East Full time

Report

Highlights

Selection

League round up

Scrappy victory

By John Cox

While the game was untidy, Witham's finishing was clinical to ensure we took the double over local rivals.

With both sides having struggled to get full teams, both sides were a bit unbalanced but ready to compete for everything. In spite of Writtle's bigger pack, the Witham scrum held its own. The opening try came from a scrum with Rich Miller picking up from the base. When he was halted a few yards (No it wasn't 40 metres Nathan), Frosty took it on and over to score. From the restart, Writlle had a spell of possession but could not break our defence. Once we had turned the ball over, Alex Beer made a break before passing to Sam Holloway who pounded through the last defenders to score. Writtle then enjoyed spending time in our 22. An unfortunate injury to Writtle's second row player halted the game for quite a while but when it restarted, the hosts were determined to get on the scoreboard. Having repelled several attacks, our defence was finally breached, closing the lead to just 5 points. At the restart, Vidler told Coxy where to place the kick. Coxy obliged and Vids made sure he got there. Having stolen possession, Witham once again let Sam blast his way through for his 10th try of the season. As the half came to a close, Ben Kennard capped his Witham debut with an excellent try. The winger came inside to collect a loose pass and showed great pace to beat his opposite number to the line.
A few changes were made at half time, and by the time we were 5 minutes into the half, Alex had finally counted to 14 and brought a player back onto to give us a full side again (so much for me having a little breather). Ben obviously likes scoring tries as he added another to his tally. Writtle managed to hussle us at the restart and got a scrum a few metres out. Although we held their pack, their runners managed to find the space to get through to score. Once again, we used Vidler at the restart and having stolen possession, we let Alex get his customary score. Writtle then scored a breakaway try as the game got more and more untidy. Vidler then tried a little chip and chase but was blocked off illegally. While he was still rolling along like an Italian footballer, Lee Bywater had strolled ahead to fetch the ball. He picked it up like a drunk who's dropped a kebab but as I yelled for the ball, he realised the quick penalty was on. I tapped the ball and fooled the defence into thinking I'd go right but popped it left to Darren Smith who tore through the gap to score from about 5.3metres (other reports vary from 25 metres to 3.6 miles). The next time Sam got the ball, there was no way he was passing. I'm sure I heard him mutter hatrick as he zoomed by to score. The final try was a lovely bit of interplay between the backs resulting in a well deserved try for Vidler to wrap up a 62-17 win.
I received an update on the injured player, Ian Douglas who some players will know. He has damaged both tendons in his knee and was due to have surgery. Our best wishes go to him as we never wish to see a Man go down.