A hard fought away win at Barking to start the New Year

Walden travelled down to Barking for their first game of the New Year to try and avenge a narrow defeat at Saffron Walden at the beginning of the season.
Things did not start well and after only 10 minutes Walden soon found themselves 2 tries and 10 points adrift as they struggled to get into the game.
Gradually they began to tighten the defence up and the first Walden try came when finally they secured possession for a decent period of time working their way into the Barking half. A great chip through behind the defence and centre Mark Kimberley was first to it scoring a fine try. Full back Tom Price converted. 10 - 7 20 mins.
10 minutes later after a couple good runs out of defence by flanker Ben Stapleton Walden took the lead as prop Steve Mugridge received the ball 15 metres out burst through a tackle and went under the posts unopposed. 10 -14.
Barking hit back as Walden failed to clear their lines conceding a 5 metre scrum, the No8 picked the ball up from the base of the scrum and barged his way over the try line. 17 -14 35 mins.
From the kick off Barking tried to run the ball out of defence but an errant pass saw the ball on the ground and Centre Nick Dawson was first to it fly hacking the ball forward and as it dribbled towards the try line another chip forward and fellow centre Kimberly just managed to get enough of his fingertips on the ball to be awarded his second try to leave Walden ahead at half time 17 -21.
It took only 3 minutes into the second half before Walden scored their bonus point try as winger Adam Miles found himself on the end of great counter attack as forwards and backs combined to create the space extending Waldens lead to 17- 28.
Barking came back and scored their fourth try to narrow the gap to 22- 28 after 50 mins.
Walden then extended their lead first with a penalty after Barking were penalised for not rolling away and then another converted try when after a good attack Connor McCabe marking his first start at Scrum Half showed good awareness to take the ball at the base of a ruck seeing there was no cover on the narrow blindside scampered over. Walden were looking good with a 16 point gap at 22 – 38 with 20 minutes remaining.
However a Yellow card reduced the Walden to 14 men and Barking took full advantage scoring a try at the end of this period. 27 – 38 with still 10 minutes to go.
Then when they stretched the Walden defence finding a 2 man overlap to take another try wide out to get within 1 score at 32 - 38 and with still 3 minutes remaining Walden became nervous. Despite full time being up Barking kept attacking and Walden were forced to concede a number of penalties but held out finally getting the turnover to secure the win.
A Bonus point away win is always a great achievement but Walden will know that they will need to train hard this week and play better to give themselves the best opportunity of matching the League leaders Tring at Henham next week. Kick off is at 2pm please come along and support.
A good day for the club as the Saxons won 33 – 0 away at Cantabs to go second in the EC2W league.