Some scores settled....

Coffee: Warm, cooling to tepid.
Bacon Roll: Slices; 2, occasionally 3. Well cooked; crispy edges, Good. Roll; soft, white. Poor

Woodford U14s charged down the A12 like a Mad Max convoy, made up of SUVs and practical hatchbacks, to Romford and Gidea Park RFC, for a friendly fixture which will be re-played in the league in 3 weeks time. The previous encounter of these two teams had seen Romford claim a narrow victory, so the prospect of two evenly matched squads playing out helped to warm the hearts of parents who were wrapped up against the bitter November cold.

Romford clearly had some big players, and seemed to be drilling their forwards hard in the warm up. It looked like Woodford would have to keep their defence organised to curtail these strong runners, and so it proved to be. Woodford kicked off after Romford won the toss and elected to change ends. The visitors were quickly on the back foot with Romford making a lot of ground and into Woodford's 22 in fairly short order. Tackling was good from Woodford, but Romford were re-cycling the ball and making steady progress. However Woodford soon managed to turn over possession and used their strong running centeres to get back up the park passing the ball through hands to the wings, re-cycling at the break down and Ryan Davies at scrum half eventually finding Jakub Saunders on a charge to spin around a couple of Romford defenders and touch down to open Woodford's account. The first half was a well matched affair with Romford moving from pick and go to slinging the ball wide to their speedy winger. Fortunately Woodford remembered to keep their width in defence and didn't commit too many to the break downs, and so when Romford used their line Woodford had players to halt progress in the wide channels. Cold hands and eager minds saw several knocks on during this half, and Woodford were frequently and consistently being blown up for being off-side at the break down, which impeded a lot of their progress and was too frequently handing possession to the opposition. Fortunately Woodford seemed to have the upper hand in the scrums. This, combined with good low tackles and excellent running from the midfield saw Woodford 17-0 up at halftime, with Ben scoring with a wonderfully skilful little dink over the defensive line which he ran through to catch and score, and Joel charge through and touch down after receiving the ball off a Woodford a line out about 12 yards out. Ryan Davies converted Ben Munsons's try.

The 2nd half was Kicked off by Romford and caught under pressure from several Romford players charging across and it was bundled into touch by the charging Romford players. The subsequent Romford line out saw play progress to a breakdown inside Woodford 22, on the left hand side of the pitch. Woodford were defending strongly and Romford were struggling to push over the line, until the ref blew up for offside as the far side winger let a foot stray in front of the rear of the ruck... Romford quickly took the penalty and were able to break through a discombobulated Woodford line to score. The restart saw Woodford kick long, and although Romford fought back down the pitch the ball was ultimately ripped from a Romford player by Joel Conradie who set off down the pitch in counter attack. Only to be blown up again as Woodford were penalised for infringing offside again. These penalties were costing Woodford a lot of ground as Romford kicked for touch deep into Woodford's territory. None the less Woodford were able to stay strong and the next score came from Woodford playing themselves back down the pitch, working the ball left and right and eventually Ollie Miles, playing very well on the wing, putting Owen Chance into space who went over for Woodford's 4th. This was proving to be a well organised and orchestrated performance by Woodford. The boys were talking to each other, supporting each other, and it's was great to see forwards pods rucking over to maintain the ball at the break downs, which has been a common failing of the squads. In this 2nd Half Nicholas made several excellent runs through the mid field, making great ground. Ezra Pilkington was a strong runner as always, sending one Romford defender sprawling onto his back from a mistimed tackle. Remainder of the half seemed to consist of Woodford giving away penalties for off-side, and Romford kicking down the pitch, ultimately this led to another Romford score after a line-out 5 meters off the Woodford line, after Nicholas had been yellow-carded for off-side at the break down. It was unfair, but the ref had warned of the possibility if the infringements continued, there had been many guilty parties and Nicholas Crossley was just the one to cop it. At the re-start Romford fumbled and were immediately punished as Tommy Porter scooped up the loose ball and jinked through the broken Romford line to run the remaIning 3/4 of the pitch with Romford trailing in his wake. To top it off he kicked the conversion as well. Should've been 1/2 yard of Guinness penalty for showing off! The final score was 29-15 to Woodford.