Rugby: Brindle praises Brentwood

The game was played in wet and windy conditions and it was a game that didn't really come alive until the last 10 minutes. And what a 10 minutes it was!

Brentwood made five changes, one positional, from the line-up against Wymondham last week.

The evergreen Welsh veteran, Colin Reynolds, came in at full-back for his first league game of the season with Steve Miller moving to centre in place of the unavailable Trevor Church.

Veteran hooker George Adams, looking slightly jaded from his birthday celebrations the night before, came in for his third league outing in place of the injured Dave Brooks while flanker, Louis Parkes, replaced the injured John Fowley. Danny Gibson, playing on the right wing replaced Grant Taylor.

Lowestoft & Yarmouth kicked off playing up the slope and soon found themselves under pressure from the strong and more organised Brentwood XV.

Early pressure, particularly through the kicking from hand of outside-half, Andy Cappaert, and Reynolds brought chances of scoring.

With eight minutes gone, Reynolds had the opportunity to put them into the lead through a penalty, but his kick hit the post and fell wide.

Minutes later, a good kick from Cappaert gave Brentwood a line-out near the opposition's 22 metre line.

An excellent take by James Williams followed by a textbook forward drive towards the line led to a scrum for Brentwood just a few metres from the try line.

However, the chance of scoring a try was lost when the referee adjudged the put-in to be not straight allowing Lowestoft & Yarmouth to clear their line with a penalty kick.

The visitors then worked their way up the right hand touchline to the home 22.

Following a break down in their play Brentwood's forwards were able to secure the ball and present their three-quarters with a further scoring opportunity.

The ball was well moved to Gibson who was pulled down in full flight just 10 metres from the line.

Good throwing in at the lineout by Adams, in difficult conditions, to the secure hands of Williams or Killington and solid work in the loose and the tight by the pack as a whole gave the backs opportunities to breach the visitors defence.

They were unable to capitalise on the advantage despite some incisive runs by centre Simon McConnel and Reynolds, the greasy ball being easily spilled from the hands at crucial moments.

The visitors, likewise, could make no headway, their number eight causing a few problems but their three-quarters being either unable or not allowed to get the ball moving due to solid defence by Brentwood.

Eventually there was some reward for Brentwood's efforts when Reynolds kicked a penalty from 24 metres.

Play changed ends and soon the opposition had equalised through a penalty with the last kick of the half.

At this time there was the feeling that, despite their superiority, Brentwood might find it difficult to get ahead in the second half with the constant rain making the pitch very heavy.

By this time the experienced Steve Taylor had replaced the injured Gary Shales at prop.

This change, given the heavy conditions, was to be significant in the second half.

The second period began with the injured James Freshwater being replaced at scrum half by Nick Twidale.

This change appeared to somewhat curtail the antics of the competent visiting number eight who had caused problems in the first half.

With the poor playing conditions affecting the quality of play for the first 30 minutes, almost entirely played between the 22 metre lines, there was little to excite the crowd from either side.

Both sides missed less-than-easy penalty attempts and, perhaps, the highlight of this somewhat scrappy period of the game was a double dummy by stalwart prop Nigel Kirby.

With 20 minutes to go, Nathan Lee replaced flanker Louis Parkes who had had an admirable game alongside the experienced Williams and his captain, James Metcalfe, having yet another significant match.

With 10 minutes to go and with the rain having stopped, Reynolds made a good scything run up the middle of the field.

The move was thwarted and following an infringement, Lowestoft & Yarmouth took an unexpected and undeserved lead through a penalty kick to take the score to 6-3 to the visitors.

This score and the thought of defeat to a lesser opposition seemed to put fire into the Brentwood players.

From the kick off they attacked the Lowestoft & Yarmouth defence and a scrum was earned in front of the posts.

A planned move again saw McConnel breach the visitors' backline. When he was brought down the ball was swiftly recycled, Twidale fed Cappaert who burst through to score near the posts.

Reynolds converted the try to take the score to 10-6 and the players and supporters were delighted but it wasn't over yet.

A minute later a Lowestoft & Yarmouth player booted the ball deep into Brentwood territory.

Wingman John Martin ran back, collected the ball and went on a 60 metre swerving run leaving several of the visiting players grasping at air.

When he was eventually tackled the ball was again recycled quickly by the forwards, passed through several pairs of hands to Danny Gibson who had the youthful Reynolds outside him.

Reynolds was half expecting to be passed to but Gibson chose to cut inside two players to score as good a try as has ever been seen at Brentwood.

Reynolds converted to take the final score to 17-6; a fair result in the end although it had looked 10 minutes earlier that it wasn't going to be.

Brentwood coach/player Micky Brindle, who had a sound match in the second row alongside Steve Killington, and his coaching team were delighted with the outcome.

They also believe that this important win will give his players a much needed confidence boost for future league games, the next of which is at Shelford on Saturday, December 9.

Clearly, this team is capable of playing good winning rugby and this will happen when the players believe more in themselves and a good level of consistency can be achieved.

Brentwood: Kirby, Adams, Shales (Taylor), Killington, Brindle, Metcalfe, Parkes (Lee), Williams, Freshwater (Twidale), Cappaert, Martin, Miller, McConnel, Gibson and Reynolds.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.