Good effort

With so many missing, the lads who faced Mersea put in a valiant effort and deserved some points on the board.

Although Mersea started strongly, the Witham defence was strong and held out for the first 10 minutes. When Mersea did break through, it was from a charged down kick. Their bigger pack were having to work hard to win the scrums but had the edge at many of the rucks. Their lead was doubled soon afterwards but our boys kept at it and made sure the visitors had to strive for every bit of possession. By half time, it was 31-0 to the visitors but there was a feeling that Witham only needed a small break to get themselves on the score sheet. Mersea clearly wanted more and managed to keep increasing the score. They had managed to get to 62-0 when a period of pressure gave Witham a penalty just outside the 22. Daz Chesson slotted it to get us on the board. 1 Mersea try later and Witham were again attacking their 22. Mersea turned the ball over and kicked clear. Michael Vidler scooped the ball up and saw space on the left which he attacked. As the space closed, a deft kick gave Rob Bennett something to chase. He did so and scored brilliantly to the delight of the home support. Mersea scored again to extend their lead before Tappy made a break into their defence. With another try seriously possible, a defender stuck an arm out to deliberately knock on. The last play of the game saw Daz Chesson skim the penalty on the crossbar to give us double figures.