Walden come a cropper at SWF

Walden travelled to South Woodham Ferrers and despite some recent fine weather the pitch was still not conducive to running rugby.
However nothing should be taken away from the home team as they came out deserved winners despite Walden looking good in parts but they simply did not secure enough ball especially early on in the second half when the game was lost.
Walden started off brightly and with the elements in their favour soon forced SWF to give away a penalty and scrum-half Will Brown took a quick tap and was tackled before he reached 10 mtres and fullback Tom Price stepped up and kicked the 3 points. 3 mins.
For the next 15 mins was a taster of what was to come in the second half as SWF scored 2 tries the first from a catch and drive in the line out and the second from a push over try. Both tries were converted and they found themselves up 14 -3 after 18 mins.
Walden then had their best quarter of the game when first they scored wide out when the backs used their pace and centre Mark Kimberley sensed the overlap as he ran through a gap and then threw a perfectly timed pass to left wing Ben Nash which saw him go over in the corner. 14 – 10 as Price converted.
Straight from the kick off the ball was fed out to the backs and this time Price joined the line at pace threw a dummy pass and sped through the gap created and again Nash was on his shoulder to receive the pass to score an unconverted try as Walden took the lead. 14 -15 after 22 mins.
Then when almost a repeat of the first try with this time flanker Eddie Brown who raced through another gap to yet again find winger Nash in a good position to receive the final pass to score in the corner on the last play of the half to give Walden a 6 point lead at 14 – 20.
It looked good at this point but as the second half started it quickly turned pear shaped as for almost 25 mins Walden simply could not get their hands on the ball and the larger SWF pack dominated and hardly made any mistakes, ably helped by some good lines run by the their backs they scored 4 unanswered tries to simply take the game beyond Walden who appeared shell shocked as the 6 point lead turned into a 22 point deficit at 42 – 20 in half an hour.
Walden somehow managed to regroup and for the last 10 mins of the game finally got some ball and came close to scoring on a couple of occasions, Finally the pressure told and after several phases a neat inside inside pass by flyhalf Tom Hughes saw inside centre Nick Dawson hit a gap 10 mtres out and he was over for a consolation bonus point try. Final Score 42 – 25.
Although there were several players unavailable and/or injured, it was not a reason for the loss basically Walden only played for half an hour and will now need to up their game over the next few weeks with the last 4 games all against sides at the top of the league. A big effort will be required in training and some team spirit generated to compete at this level to avoid the season petering out.