Chelmsford 22 Old Priorians 0
London One North

Chelmsford put in what was undoubtedly their best performance of the season to defeat a strong Old Priorians side by 3 tries to nil and in doing so managed to pull away from the bottom end of the table to record their 3rd win of the season.

The turning point of the game was early in the 2nd half, when Chelmsford had hooker, Dave Hyett, sin binned for killing the ball. During his absence the home side were under a lot of pressure, as the visitors were threatening the Chelmsford line, however, the home side’s 14 men put in a tremendous 10 minute spell of first up tackling to prevent the visitors from scoring. Had Old Priorians scored at this stage, then the outcome may have been different, but this seemed to galvanise the Chelmsford team and they went on to record what was a confidence boosting victory, with an all round team performance that had Chelmsford’s Director of Coaching, Eddie Gooby, singing their praises.

He said: “I am so pleased for the coaches and players today. In too many of our games we have played well but come up short. This week the squad went back to basics to try and work out how to win games and today we produced one of the best performances in my time at the club against a good Old Priorians team. Today every player understood his role and executed the game plan. It was just reward for all the hard work the boys have put in on the training field. Every week is a challenge for us and the key is putting out a settled team. We only made two changes to the team this week and it showed in the continuity of our play, which was more direct and faster than previous weeks. We have another massive challenge ahead this coming week facing Brentwood and we will use this as another opportunity to learn about what it takes to play at this standard. Every game is about taking the positives out of the games that we play and today we took a lot out of the game so we can move on in a great frame of mind.”

Chelmsford played with the elements in the first half, but it was the visitors who started off the more composed side, with Chelmsford giving away a series of penalties. The visitors looked an accomplished unit, playing with confidence after recording 4 wins from their last 5 games. It was not until 10 minutes into the game that scrum half, Ben Bayley, managed to relieve the pressure on the Chelmsford line with a long clearance kick into the visitor’s half. Chelmsford themselves managed to gain possession from a line out and some quick ball saw full back Harry Molesley, who was making his debut, find a gap in the visitor’s defence to crash over for a try, which was converted by fly half, Zane Mannan, to take Chelmsford into a 7 – 0 lead. Old Priorians then suffered a blow, with the retirement of their influential fly half with a leg injury. On the half hour mark Chelmsford scored their 2nd try, when from a catch and drive, skipper Paul Redford went over near the posts and with Zane Mannan converting, Chelmsford led by 14 – 0. It was now Chelmsford’s turn to exert pressure on the Old Priorians line, following a great clearance kick from Zane Mannan to the visitor’s corner flag. The pressure eventually told and from another catch and drive at a line out, flanker, Chris Hoult, was on hand to score an unconverted try to take Chelmsford into a healthy 19 – 0 lead just before half time.

The 2nd half began with the sin binning of hooker Dave Hyett, but just after he had returned to the field, Chelmsford were dealt a further blow, when Zane Mannan was sent off for what the referee deemed to be a dangerous tackle. Chelmsford were now down to 14 men for the final 25 minutes of play, but as is often the case, this seemed to bring the team together and the home side gradually began to exercise control over the game and take the game away from their opponents, through some effective driving forward play. The visitors began to give away penalties and seemed to lose the shape to their game and never really threatened the Chelmsford line as much as they should have done, thanks in the main to some tenacious first time tackling. Ten minutes from time Chelmsford secured this much needed win with a penalty from Harry Molesley, for the visitors not rolling away from a ruck. This meant that Chelmsford ran out deserved winners by 22 points to nil. Whilst every player can be proud of their achievements, special mention must be made of flanker, Josh Cavey, who was outstanding in both attack and defence.

Chelmsford play league leaders Brentwood (away) this coming Saturday, with a kick off time of 2.30pm.