St.Ives Roosters made the long trip to Essex on Saturday to face Brentwood looking for revenge after the Eels took the spoils in their clash earlier in the season.

Roosters hadn't played for 6 weeks and they'd clearly spent that time recruiting as they fielded an 17 man squad with 8 players making their debuts.

After a very tight first half with both defences on top and a rusty Roosters outfit ironing out the mistakes, the St.Ives side found themselves 6-10 up after scores from Michael Wright and debutant Gavin. Wright was first to cross the line after crashing over from close in and then Gavin sandwiched a Brentwood converted try when some good hands across the back line found a gap and he dashed over the line.

The second half was completely different to the first, Roosters showed poor discipline in important areas and the constant defensive work took its toll as Brentwood ran in 4 tries to take a 28-10 lead. With 16 minutes left the Roosters decided to show up...

They began to show fight and determination, Josh Meadows and Aaron Throne were flying into tackles, as they had been all game but it was veteran Dave Sykes that inspired the Roosters after coming up with two trademark scores to pull them back in to the game. 28-20.

Roosters then suffered another set back, Brentwood were on 5th tackle as a Roosters marker was adjudged 'not square' and a penalty awarded. The resulting set of six saw Brentwood feed the ball wide and the move was about to be finished with a try when Jamie Noble came across wit a superb tackle with everyone applauding...except the player on the floor who clearly has a career in theatre ahead of him and the referee who showed Noble a yellow card!! And to rub salt in the wounds, with the 3rd attacking set in a row Brentwood found a gap and scored under the posts. 34-20.

With minutes left Roosters were keen to end on a high and retrieved the ball from kick off. Michael Wright made yards down the left wing and then the ball was fed through hands to find the winger on the right...Tommy Newman. The birthday boy breezed over two tacklers to touch down in the corner and as Paul Ashbridge sent the wide kick through the posts, the referee blew the final whistle. 34-26.