Tring 28 Chelmsford 13
(London 1 North league)

Chelmsford knew that they would be in for a tough game against a side who were playing in National League 3, London & South East last season, but relegated at the end of the season on points difference. Tring had averaged 45 points a game so far in their first 5 matches this season, but even with 4 front line players on the sidelines through unavailability and injury, Chelmsford put in a brave and totally committed performance, to match their opponents in most areas of the game, only for them to fall short with some missed tackles and handling errors, which ultimately proved costly.

Chelmsford gave a debut to two players, centre, Dan Idundun, from Anglia Ruskin University who made a very promising debut and Dominic Dann, who came on in the 2nd half as a wing replacement. Chelmsford opened the scoring after just 3 minutes when a kick from fly half, Jamie Morrish, took a favourable bounce and found its way into the hands of Will Ferrier, who strode over unopposed for a try which was converted by full back, Simon Hoult to give Chelmsford a 7 – 0 lead. Tring then reduced the arrears to 4 points a few minutes later, when Chelmsford were penalised for not rolling away in the tackle. Unfortunately for the visitors, flanker, Seth Robinson, had to leave the field with an ankle injury, with replacement prop, Sean Gannon going to the 2nd row and 2nd row forward Mlyes Regan into the back row. Simon Hoult then narrowly missed the posts with a penalty attempt for Chelmsford.

After 20 minutes, Tring took the lead when a loose pass from Chelmsford went to ground and the ball was picked up by a Tring player, and following some excellent inter-passing between their backs, Tring scored a fine try, converted by their influential fly half, Tom Newton, to take them into a 10 – 7 lead. Simon Hoult then exchanged penalties to level the scores at 10 points each, but some ill discipline by Chelmsford led to them giving away a penalty for a high tackle to take Tring back into the lead by 13 - 10, which they never relinquished. Just minutes before half time, the home side scored their 2nd try through fly half Tom Newton, who ran through a gap in Chelmsford ‘s defence and slipped through several tackles to score a fine try by the posts and with his conversion, that took Tring into a half time lead of 20 – 10.

The 2nd half was only 6 minutes old, when Tring increased their lead to 13 points when Chelmsford were penalised for not rolling away in the tackle, then Simon Hoult reduced the arrears again to 10 points when Tring were penalised for hands in the ruck. The next 20 minutes was Chelmsford’s best spell of the game and they put together some good facets of play, but couldn’t add to their score tally. Unfortunately for Chelmsford they were penalised and Tring took a quick penalty, but Chelmsford failed to retire the 10 metres, so the referee yellow carded Josh Cavey. Leading up the yellow card offence, Tring’s fly half, Tom Newton was tackled heavily by Josh Cavey and the fly half had to leave the field. At this stage Tring lost their shape somewhat, but they still managed to score their 3rd try following some good play through the phases and Chelmsford ran out of numbers on the left hand side, so Tring now led by 28 – 13.

Despite some late surges by Chelmsford in the Tring 22metre area, after the referee awarded Chelmsford a series of penalties, they couldn’t add to their tally, so Tring ran out winners by 28 – 13, but the home side knew that Chelmsford gave a good account of themselves and never gave up. The man of the match was Chelmsford’s flanker, Josh Cavey, who was outstanding in both attack and defence.

Director of Coaching, Eddie Gooby, said after the game: “I was really pleased with the level of performance today, we are growing into this league and starting to understand what's needed to be competitive. Today was frustrating as we could have got a lot more out of this game. Six games in we have played three of the top seven, and apart from CS Rugby we haven’t been far off the mark. The main difference is that you get punished for the mistakes that you make and once again today the small things are hurting us on the scoreboard. We now have a week off and the rest period is vital for us. We will talk to the players and break them down individually and collectively and ask for improvements to take into the next big game at home to North Walsham on 24th October.

The one thing I need from this group of players is consistency in selection, as we have used 31 players this season and never given ourselves the chance to gel as a team. Once we achieve this we will start winning more games and all of the coaches believe this young squad will get better week by week. All 31 players have done a fantastic job for us, no one more so than Myles Regan who leaves us to go travelling. The whole squad and the club wish him a safe trip.”