And they're off

Halstead Templars started their league campaign off with a home fixture against last season's winners and certainly title contenders again, Mersea Island.

Halstead were without one or two players but it would be flattering to say they could have turned a game that started out as an even contest, but turned into a rout.

Honors were even between the two forward packs. Mersea probably edging the contest in terms of size, but Halstead were far more mobile and when attacking this would be their main option, Ivan Fellowes and Simon Hallows carrying with great effect. However, it was through the forwards that Mersea's first score came after 10 minutes. A catch and drive from a line out saw the Templars unprepared to counter and Mersea were on the scoreboard.

Halstead reasserted themselves and once more looked like they would be happy to battle it out in midfield, but then the defensive dam burst and Mersea scored a run of tries that had Halstead reeling. On the 18th minute the second try was scored, followed by scores at 20, 23 and 24minutes. As if that wasn't bad enough, Halstead full-back Jon McKechnie - playing at outside centre - then saw yellow for a deliberate knock-on. To the Templars credit, they hung on for the sin-bin period but conceded two more as the half-time clock ticked down. The scoreboard read 0-47 at the break.

Mersea started the second half as they had finished the first with two quick scores, and the Templars had to make an enforced change within 10 minutes of the restart, hooker James Sutton going down, bringing veteran Adi Illingworth off the bench for the first game of his 40th season. However, it was the second substitution, Zak Bredin, who finally got the Templars on the scoresheet. A poorly kicked clearance from Mersea was gathered off the bounce by Bredin who went through the first two would-be tacklers and crashed over the line. Prop Danny Lynn, an all too familiar figure with a kicking tee, adding the extras to make the score 7-61.

The Templars were clearly buoyed by this and from the kick off had a wonderful attacking move down the left hand side, Dale Brooks nearly evading the covering tackles of the Islanders defense. Sadly, this resurgence was short lived and Mersea scored again on 63 minutes. Then, in the final ten minutes, Mersea seemed to score from everywhere on the pitch. Josh Grimwood King kicked off, Mersea caught and secured the ball, then switched the attack to the opposite wing and cantered through, four times in a row.

The fact that the Templars kept the score line under 100 was largely due to some excellent defensive work by, Man-of-the-Match, Emile Du Toit who made too many last-ditch tackles to count. Also notable for their work rate were flankers Nick Pryke and Callum O'Connell.

The Templars host Felixstowe on Saturday 24th. Felixstowe came up to Division One following the withdrawal of Maldon from the league structure and Halstead must target this game as a first step to getting their season on track.