EM Vs Woodford & Dagenham

Mark's Match Report
Finally we managed to get some games going at Dagenham whose pitches were in very good condition despite the terrible weather we've been having. Basildon didn't turn up in the end but Woodford took their place instead.

We had 13 players who came and we played three games in total, they were all very competitive games with all teams running in plenty of tries. We ran the ball very well and generally our handling and passing were good with some excellent runs by many of our players. Where we lost the games was in the tackle area - although there was plenty of fine tackling from us the opposition players were able to break through our defence too often as we had a tendency to stick an arm out or try and go for their shoulders and were easily brushed aside instead of putting the shoulder in and grabbing their legs.

We played Woodford twice losing 10-6 and 9-5 and we were pleased at how we played against a well drilled Woodford team. In the second game we went up 2 nil and dominated most of the first half, Thomas who was playing as scrum half had the vision on a couple of occasions to get the long pass out to Michael who exploited the space and ran in a couple of fine tries. But in the end a combination of their faster players and some good passing saw them get back into it and win the game.

Against Dagenham it was route one stuff from them. We knew this was coming and told the players that they had to be brave and concentrate on their tackles - on occasion their largest boy would trundle up the pitch with sometimes 3 of our team needed to take him down - but take him down they did! We traded tries for most of the game but in the end the constant tackling needed was too much and they managed to stretch out a lead and ended up winning 11-7. It was a well fought game but it was slightly disappointing as we felt we could have won this one.

I have to congratulate all the team on their attitude and tremendous effort as they kept going to the end in all of the matches and took some pretty big tackles very well.

There were keen demands from the players to know who man of the match was and I said on this occasion we weren't going to give one but when pressed again I said I thought Jack, Thady and Frank deserved a special mention for their strong running, tackling and try scoring!