Braintree 55 - 7 Old Brentwoods

BRAINTREE RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL CLUB 2015/16 SEASON.

BRAINTREE...55 OLD BRENTWOODS...7 (Friendly)

BRAINTREE found themselves without a league fixture at the weekend as a result of Dagenham’s withdrawal from Essex One.
But they were able to keep their rapidly improving squad busy by arranging a friendly against Old Brentwoods which they won in convincing fashion.
Old Brentwoods themselves were recently forced to withdraw from London NE3 in circumstances almost identical from Tree’s departure from the same league last season.
The visitors had recently agreed to take over Dagenham’s fixtures on a friendly basis but might be regretting their decision after taking a decisive beating at Robbs Wood.
Tree applied all the early pressure and looked set to score straight from the kick-off until conceding a penalty on the opposition try line which enabled them to clear their lines.
Despite their territorial dominance it took the black and ambers until the 16th minute to finally take the lead.
The home side secured ball from a line-out just inside their opponent’s half and a clever dummy run by fly-half Craig Willis enabled inside centre Joss Adams to take possession and glide through several defenders to score.
Kyle Crush converted the score to give Tree a 7-0 lead which they doubled four minutes later.
Willis turned the ball over deep in OB’s half to score try number two with Crush kicking the extra points. 14-0.
On 35 minutes Tree again turned the ball over, this time on the visitors’ five-metre line, with flanker Conor Stephens pouncing on the ball to score and put his side 19-0 to the good.
A minute before the interval the home side’s forwards turned over more scrum ball before feeding possession to winger James Moore who grabbed try number four with a powerful run. 24-0.

After the break Tree seemed to retreat into their shell for the first 20 minutes, only being stunned back into action when OB’s scored a converted try on the hour mark. 24-7.
The score seemed to sting the home side out of their lacklustre phase and they began to play a much more expansive game to make use of their impressive back line.
On 65 minutes clean scrum ball was secured on the opposition 22 and the ball was fed out to winger Joe Young to score try number five. 29-7.
Three minutes later an outrageous dummy from replacement scrum half Elliott Dawson followed by an inside pass saw Kingsley Joslin score under the posts before converting his own try. 36-7.
On 70 minutes the mercurial Adams again ghosted through OB’s defence untouched to score a sixth try which was converted by Joslin to stretch Tree’s lead to 43-7.
Two minutes later a fantastic break by replacement flanker Jack Lee saw the ball slipped inside to Moore for his second try of the afternoon, with Joslin converting. 50-7.
There was more misery for OB’s when, during the last play of the game, Adams took possession to grab his hat-trick wide out left. 55-7.

BRUFC Chairman of Selectors Dave Gilder said: “We had to make a fair few changes from our previous game due to players being unavailable through injury or work commitments.
“But with more and more players returning and becoming available for selection the greater depth in our squad is starting to pay dividends.
“Apart from a 20-minute spell at the beginning of the second half when we seemed to go to sleep we bossed the game completely.
“It was another great confidence booster which should stand us in good stead for next weekend’s league visit to Canvey Island.”

BRUFC: K Crush, J Young, Joslin, Adams, J Moore, Willis (Drew), Page (Dawson), Perry, Jones (W Turner), Aldridge (Terry), Apps, Fitzearle, Carslake, C Stephens (Lee), Spearman.