Seniors Victorious in first ever competetive match!

Brentwood Eels made a triumphant start to life in the senior leagues by beating North Herts Knights 74-22 in Brentwood on Saturday. With tries from man of the match Joe Heavey (4), Youngsters Callum Whitcombe and Preye Kongha both grabbing a brace! Jo Jones, Chris Suker, Jake Yellop and Alfie all on the score sheet too! Lawrence Haywood capped a great goal kicking display with a try also. The Eels proved slippery customers and ran riot for 80 minutes, not even the rain could spoil a fantastic debut.

With the weather the only result not going Brentwood’s way on Saturday it was safe to say winning the toss was a sign of good things to come with player/coach Anthony Sherwood electing to go down the slight hill at Brentwood’s home ground. An early mistake from kick off led to a scrum deep in Brentwood’s half but strong defence by Anthony Sherwood forced the knock on to which possession was quickly granted to Brentwood’s elusive back line on their try line making 20 metres, following a strong carry from Anthony Sherwood, Laurence Haywood and Callum Whitcombe Provided excellent support for Callum to touch down for Brentwood’s First ever competitive score!

This was Sherwood’s last play with a previous injury ending his match leading to Brentwood rugby union’s first team captain Josh Woodcock replacing him. Brentwood followed up on the great start with two quick try’s from Joe Heavey and Preye Khonga. Leaving Brentwood 16-0 after 10 minutes! A lacklustre 10 minutes gave the more experienced rugby league visitors a chance to grab a try back making it 16-6. This forced Brentwood to start again and build their phases and were rewarded with two tries from great backs moves for Jake Yellop and Chris Suker.

The visitors applied great pressure in a constant never say die attitude with two tries bringing the score to 26-16. With 10 minutes to go Dummy half's Lawrence Haywood and Joe Heavey took control of the game scoring 4 between them and with Joe completing his 4th try of the game came off after injury leaving the Half Time scores a hefty 50-16.

Preye Kongha entered the fray for a second time at the beginning of the second half and with a magnificent pick and go from 2nd tackle ran almost 80 metres for a solo effort! The second half was made dead certain for Brentwood to seal the win with Callum Whitcombe and Alfie leading an aggressive attack and defensive show and being rewarded with scores in the process. The last score of the game was by Back rower Jo Jones who showed Great work rate throughout the game.

The Last 20 was slowed down by awful weather and a tiring North Herts Defensive unit, with any attacks being nullified by centre Chris Suker, who produced an outstanding defensive display and was in contention for man of the match. The Overall man of the match was Joe Heavey at 7 for his complete game play in attack and defence.

This result leaves Brentwood Top of the league with players on a high and hungry for the challenge from North Herts Crusaders in the challenge cup next week 31st May @Brentwood Rugby club 2:30pm KO.

1 Callum Whitcombe
2 Preye Kongha
3 Chris Suker
4 Jake Yellop
5 Joe Fennessy
6 Lawrence Haywood
7 Joe Heavey
8 Anthony Sherwood
9 Andy Parkyn
10 Sean Jones
11 Tom Riches
12 Jason Lindsay
13 Jo Jones
14 Josh Woodcock
15 Toby Hind
16 Mike Swaine
17 Calvin Bradley
18 Cameron Gray
19 Alfie Hill
20 James Mavelia
21 Billy Mullen

Man of the Match Joe Heavey