Ruislip 39 Brentwood 14 (London & South East Division: North 1) 18th October 2014

The injury crisis at Brentwood finally took its toll on Saturday afternoon as Brentwood were well beaten by a resurgent Ruislip side. Brentwood without 8 regular first team players had to press gang Director of Rugby Steve Killington to play in the front row for the first time in his illustrious career. Rob Mead made a welcome return to first team action for the first time in 3 years & Chris Stewart came off the bench to play first team rugby for the first time in 2 years.

As a contest the game was over in the first 22 minutes as Ruislip dominated the opening exchanges and carved open the Brentwood defence to run in three tries to open a 22 point margin. Brentwood did not help themselves with some poor tackling in defence and gifting Ruislip their second score with an interception try.

Further injuries robbed Brentwood of stand in Fly half Henry Bird and second row Rob Hobbs before half time. Brentwood did rally and put Ruislip under pressure just before half time but were unable to cross the line to score. Errors and a lack of pace were preventing Brentwood from mounting any serious attacks on the Ruislip line.

Half time gave Brentwood time to reorganise and they certainly made their intentions clear that they were not going to roll over easily for Ruislip. The forwards gained ascendance and began to show the urgency which was lacking in the first half. Driving forward play saw Tom King burst through to score to give the small band of travelling supporters something to cheer about. Charlie Inwood duly converted the try to reduce the score to 27 -7. However Ruislip were not finished yet and clever play in mid field saw them create an opening to score another try which was converted to extend their lead to 34-7.

The Brentwood team came back from the restart to drive Ruislip back towards their own line strong ball carrying from Chris Stewart saw him break some Ruislip tackles to score in a second try for Brentwood which was converted by replacement Harry Watson to reduce the arrears to 34-14.

Ruislip scored with the last play of the game to wrap up a very disappointing day for Brentwood. They were well beaten by a good Ruislip side 39-14.

The injury crisis is obviously a main concern for the Brentwood coaches. Steve Killington and John Sproul were disappointed with the overall performance. If we miss tackles, and lose the ball in contact we are always going to be on the back foot. We need to take a long and hard look at ourselves as this performance was not good enough for us as a team.’

Next Saturday Brentwood entertain high flying Chingford in another all Essex derby match. Kick off is at 3pm at King George’s.