On a perfect afternoon for open rugby at King Georges, a large crowd assembled looking forward to an interesting encounter between the home side and newly promoted Saffron Walden. The visitors had made a promising start to their first London 1 North season with four wins from seven games. Brentwood had a slightly better record with five wins from seven but needed to bounce back after last week’s punishing away defeat at Thurrock.

Brentwood’s mounting injury toll meant that two of last year’s National Cup winning Colts had to be called up for their first team squad debuts, with prop Leo Friswell starting and seventeen year old Sam Cappaert on the bench to provide desperately needed cover in the backs. Scrum half Henry Galligan was also called back from university to supplement Brentwood’s depleted ranks by playing on the left wing.

The opening 20 minutes were evenly contested with both sides sharing possession and threatening to score in a fast paced encounter. A massive hit and some desperate defensive work on the ground saw Brentwood centre Adam Thomas yellow carded in front of the home posts. Surprisingly, Walden spurned an easy opening three points and opted to take the attacking scrum.
Brentwood defended their line like their lives depended on it and another big hit, this time by Henry Bird, enabled skipper Josh Woodcock to lead a rampage down the left wing before off loading to Tom Simpson to open the scoring with a try after 28 minutes. Bird converted to establish Brentwood in a 7-0 lead.

A 30th minute penalty deservedly put Walden on the scoreboard at 7-3 and they immediately capitalised on a rare defensive mistake by the home side to create an overlap and score their only try of the match in the left corner. A good conversion put Walden briefly in the lead at 7-10.

Brentwood were stung by this repost and pressed up the field from the kick off. Determined forward play set up the opportunity for hooker Louis Payne to touch down under the posts. Bird’s second conversion of the half brought the score to 14-10 at the break, a score which reflected a full hearted and closely contested half of entertaining rugby to which both sides had contributed.

The second half began in similar fashion but Brentwood’s resolute tackling and growing forward domination began to blunt the earlier penetration of Walden’s ball carriers. Brentwood’s third try came after 9 minutes play when scrum half Charlie Chambers burst through the centre before releasing number 8 Nick Binet to score the home side’s third try. Chambers duly converted to bring the score to 21-10.

Brentwood pressed forward and two extremely close calls on the Walden try line frustrated the now rampant Brentwood forwards. The pressure continued and a quick penalty led to Nick Binet scoring the home side’s fourth try in the left corner after 21 minutes to earn a bonus point.

Two minutes later, an enterprising piece of play from debutant Sam Cappaert allowed scrum half turned left winger Henry Galligan to run in the fifth Brentwood try. Bird’s kick brought the score to 33-10.

Walden were down but not yet out and staged a creditable rally that required stern resolve and more fierce defensive tackling to stop them crossing the Brentwood line. Their attacking efforts repelled, Walden were pushed back down the field by Brentwood’s determined teamwork and a fine Galligan run opened things up for Binet to score his third and Brentwood’s sixth try. Bird’s fourth conversion of the match increased the home lead to 40-10 with full time imminent.

The large crowd were wowed by Brentwood’s last play of the match when Sam Cappaert deftly kicked cross field into the forward run of flanker Ben Amato who completed his Davlav man of the match performance by safely catching and touching the ball down for Brentwood’s seventh try.

Brentwood’s decisive 45-10 victory was built on one of their best defensive tackling performances which overcame Saffron Walden’s early enterprise. The result leaves Brentwood still in third place in London 1 North with 32 points from eight games, six points behind unbeaten leaders Tring. Next week, Brentwood face the longest away trip of the season when they play fourth placed North Walsham away, ko 2.30pm.

Brentwood team: Leo Friswell, Louis Payne, Lewis Pratley, Josh Woodcock ©, Rob Hobbs, Ben Amato, Billy Aldous, Nick Binet, Harry Chambers, Charlie Chambers, Henry Galligan, Adam Thomas, Henry Bird, Arran Stanier, Tom Simpson. Subs: Jack Richards, Sam Cappaert and Tom King.