We left a sunny London nice and early, as requested by our Director of Rugby, and the car reckoned it was -3⁰C. It was so cold there was ice on the inside of the windscreen. Thankfully the temperature seemed to quickly rise and by the time we got to Braintree it was a topical 0⁰C, happy days.

The Braintree pitches were frozen, couldn’t even push a key into the ground. As the rest of the parents assembled the main topic of conversation was whether the match was on or off, the boys meanwhile decided to test out the ponds of ice. Woodford minis had turned up only to be told matches were cancelled. Everyone thought we’d made a wasted journey as it looked very unlikely that the match would be played. While the referee and Braintree coaches deliberated, wandering between numerous pitches, there was nothing else to do but test out the Braintree bacon and egg bap (you’ll notice a recurring theme here) and I can report it was good.

Eventually the news came through that the match was on. The pitch was a part of a recreational ground just near the club house, the ground had thawed but the still remained one rather large, cold and muddy puddle right on the touch line, one which Freddie became very acquainted with during the match.

In the warm up the Braintree kids definitely looked the keener of the two sides. Two hours of hanging around seemed to have sapped the drive out of Eton Manor and this was reflected in the early play. For the first 10 minutes both teams seemed to be on par and for a must win match it was nervous times for the spectators. Slowly Manor gained supremacy both in the scrum and also the backs pace was again cutting through the Braintree lines. The deadlock was finally broken as Mitch made a really strong run, it took three Braintree players to bring him down, off the back of that run Adam crossed the line crossed the line for Manor and scored the first try. This was followed by the worst conversion kick / miss ever. Jack K quickly followed up with a second Manor try, again not converted. The try of the first half goes to Simon, who from deep in our half picked up the ball and with his super fast speed and strong running ran in a third which Jack converted. The first half was finished off by another try by Adam. First half score was 27-0.

For the second half Anthony came off the bench, after resting an injured sustained during the warm up drills. His impact was immediately felt as he ran in a try, which Jack converted. At this point Manor were dominating every aspect of the game. Try of the second half must go to Harry the Waggers. Again similar to Simon’s try Harry picked up the ball in our half, and just like Simon used his pace to run on the outside of the entire Braintree squad. Briantree’s heads were down and consent in their ranks, they even had a penalty awarded against them at the restart for descent. The second half was first by another two tries by Adam, which were converted by Jack K.

The target was 50-0, all of the boys did well and came close winning by 48-0 and in the process promoting Manor to fifth in the table. Two critical matches coming up, let’s hope the boys can build on the last two matches.

By Gary Mountford