by Tony Aldridge
| 2009/10/31 | Brentwood | 32 | Welwyn 2009/2010 | 24 |
By Peter Bladd
For the second consecutive week Welwyn scored 4 excellent tries, only their efforts on this occasion brought no points reward.
On a pleasant autumn afternoon Welwyn visited new comers to the league Brentwood at their sloping King George Playing Fields home, the host side having to borrow a local sides shirts just before kick off to implement a speedy change in strip required by the referee.
Pre kick off drama over, Brentwood attacked from the start and pinned Welwyn deep into their half, with only excellent Welwyn tackling and the occasional handling error by the home side preventing an opening score. With only 11 minutes on the clock a 5 metre scrum near the Welwyn line and subsequent loose ball resulted in the visitors conceding a penalty and back row man Hawkins provided a 10 minute rest by the referee for killing the ball. Brentwood promptly opened their account.
Despite a man disadvantage Welwyn made much effort to get a foothold into the game, with full back Peter Elliott making an incisive break from his own 22 metre area and combined backs and forwards taking play into the Brentwood 22 for the first time. When play broke down the speedy Brentwood backs punished Welwyn's loose handling and broke down the middle of the pitch with quick interchange passing to score under the Welwyn posts to increase their lead to 10 - 0. With 20 minutes played Bentwood sought to really press their advantage, their backs looking dangerous with ball in hand and only committed Welwyn tackling keeping them from scoring. Even when Welwyn returned to full strength with the return of Hawkins, Brentwood again found space down the middle of the pitch, recycled the ball, eventually spinning it to their right winger who only had to fall over the line to score out wide, the extras being missed on this occasion. Welwyn replied from the kick off and their forwards drove into the Brentwood 22 metre area. After several attacks, Hawkins picked the ball up from the back of a ruck and broke 2 tackles to open Welwyn's account for the afternoon, the following conversion missed to bring the score to 15 - 5. After 32 minutes Brentwood needed to substitute their flanker and continued their efforts to attack deep in the Welwyn half. Continually recycling the ball and having drawn the visiting defence to the right, Brentwood cleverly switched play by passing through the hands to the left allowing their speedy winger to score their 4th try of the afternoon in the corner and too wide to allow the conversion to count. So at half time the score was 20 - 5 to the home side.
Welwyn changes at half time brought Simon Banks on as hooker, but from the restart Brentwood secured possession deep in the Welwyn half and again demonstrated their handling ability swinging the ball first left then right across combined backs and forwards, their right winger scoring to the right of Welwyn's posts to give Brentwood a converted try. From the restart Welwyn built possession on the left and some good drives by locks Picken and Rapley took play within 10 metres of the Brentwood line. Good recycled ball found the Welwyn backs attacking across the pitch and Danny Creak produced excellent footwork to beat 2 Brentwood defenders and send winger Crawley over the score line for an excellent unconverted try. With the score at 27 - 10 Welwyn seemed to gain more determination from this latest effort and again attacked Brentwood. Their reward was firstly a penalty around 25 metres out the kick going marginally wide, followed by a line out catch and drive close to the Brentwood try line resulting in the forwards getting on the score sheet with another Welwyn try, this time the conversion being excellently slotted from out wide to close the score to 27 - 17. With little more than 20 minutes of the game remaining the sides then swopped scores with the Brentwood full back going over for a converted try after some good handling in the backs, closely followed by Welwyn stealing a Brentwood lineout ball in the hosts half and equally good handling produced a try for the left winger Barry Crow, the excellent kick to convert again being made by back row man Wells. So with the score line at 32 - 24 and with Welwyn in the ascendancy as Brentwood forwards appeared to tire the visitors mounted a massive effort to change the outcome of this game. Welwyn had the upper hand and when a Brentwood player was shown yellow for not releasing they redoubled their efforts to win the game. However Brentwood defended stoutly and despite Welwyn's best efforts the visitors were unable to change the final outcome of the competition. Final score 32 - 24 to Brentwood.
Another improved performance from Welwyn who visit local rivals Stevenage next Saturday in the usual hard fought local derby.