Due to injuries, Brentwood were forced to field a front row which hitherto had not played together when they took on a side whose forwards had already gained a good reputation this season.

With the blustery wind and the slope in their favour, Brentwood took this NPI cup game to the home side from the start.

Their initial surges brought them close to the try line where the Chelmsford pack immediately showed their ability to hold their visitor's with ease as they repelled the early threat.

Brentwood went close to scoring when McConnell came off the wing to receive the ball in the centre of the line 40 metres out. The final tackle, just short of the line, left him with a leg injury.

Slowly Chelmsford advanced to the Brentwood 22. Here Brentwood successfully took their lineout ball only to lose it as they attempted to run with it.

The Chelmsford scrum half had an easy passage to score under the posts, 7-0 after ten minutes.

Reynolds opened Brentwood's score with a penalty soon afterwards.

The game evened out with neither line coming under threat until ten minutes from the end of the half when Brentwood had a lineout five metres out.

A combined team effort resulted in the ball making rapid progress through the backs to Taylor, on for the injured McConnell, who broke through to score. Reynolds converted to take Brentwood into a 10-8 lead.

Throughout the half several huge kicks into the left corner by Reynolds relieved the pressure on the Brentwood defence.

With the benefit of the elements in the second half, Chelmsford held the visitors back in their own half.

On their own scrum ball, their forwards gained control and drove Brentwood back with ease.

On the visitor's put-in they exerted sufficient pressure to prevent Brentwood from making much gain. After ten minutes their prop scored just to the right of the posts following a tap penalty.

The help of the left post was still required to make the conversion successful and to take the score to 14-10.

Brentwood were unable to make any real progress and never looked likely to rescue the match, and when they did manage to break the stranglehold of the home side's pack, over-anxiety resulted in the ball being knocked on.

Close to time only a last ditch tackle by outside centre Kennedy prevented the Chelmsford backs from increasing their lead.

Generally it was a bad day for the Brentwood forwards.

The enforced changes to the front row coupled with their captain and flanker, Metcalfe, being sidelined also through injury, made the task of competing with the established Chelmsford pack difficult.

The tactic of attempting to progress by mauling was overplayed from the early stages and little or no gain came from it.

On the plus side, and despite the change of personnel in the Brentwood pack, their lineout was successful due to accurate throwing and good timing of the lift.

Sadly, to add to Brentwood's woes, Danny Cash broke his leg playing in the back row for the second team at Basildon.

On Saturday (October 24), Brentwood resume their league campaign at Ingrave Road against local rivals, Romford & Gidea Park (kick off 3pm).

A hair raising moment: the Brentwood player breaks away from the scrum in Saturday's NPI Cup match against Chelmsford at Coronation Park.

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