Barking 26 Chelmsford 21
(London 1 North)

This was a crucial game for both sides, as prior to this match, Barking were sitting in 12th place in the league table and Chelmsford 11th. However, after their defeat by 4 tries to 2, both sides swapped places, meaning that Chelmsford slipped into the bottom 3 of the table, with Harrow and Luton behind them.

Once again this was a game that Chelmsford should have won, even allowing for the fact that they started poorly and were 12 points to nil down after only 5 minutes of play. The strong wind played an important part in the game with Barking playing with the elements in the 1st half going into the break with a half time lead of 19 – 5, however a great period of play for Chelmsford in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, saw them record 13 points, to bring them back to 19 - 18, but they failed to capitalise on this and with the home side scoring a late try, they managed to come away with a bonus point victory, whilst Chelmsford had to be content with a losing bonus point.

The opening 5 minutes of the game could only be construed as disastrous for Chelmsford as they conceded 2 tries, the first after just 2 minutes when after a dummy run by Barking’s inside centre, Fabio Ogunfowora, saw the ball given to their full back, Ash Smith, and he cut back inside and slipped through some poor Chelmsford cover defence, to score an unconverted try to take Barking into a 5 – 0 lead. The 2nd try followed 3 minutes later, when the Chelmsford cover got sucked in and with some poor tackling once again, Barking scored a converted try to take them into a 12 – 0 lead.

At this stage Barking were given too much space around the fringes, so coach Eddie Gooby, made an early change , with 2nd row, Sean Gannon giving way to flanker, Seth Robinson, who was making a welcome return to the ranks after 2 months out with injury and this seemed to tighten things up. A series of penalties finally saw Chelmsford exert some pressure on the Barking line and from one of these a catch and drive at the line out saw hooker, Dave Hyett, come up from a pile of bodies to score an unconverted try in the 12th minute to reduce the arrears to 12 – 5. A penalty for holding on in the tackle, saw Barking gain ground to Chelmsford’s 22 metre area and from the ensuing line out Barking gained possession and from a series of rucks, the ball came loose and Barking’s right wing, skipper, Nathan Barham, gathered up the ball to score a converted try to extend Barking’s lead to 14 points after 20 minutes of play.

Most of the penalties seemed to be going Chelmsford’s way and they had a great chance to reduce the deficit when they were camped in Barking’s 22 metre area for nearly 10 minutes, but they couldn’t score that elusive try and the half time whistle went with the home side 19 – 5 in the lead. The 2nd half began with Chelmsford in a more determined mood and after just 2 minutes of play, a great box kick from scrum half Ben Bayley, saw centre Oli Wright follow up the kick, the ball came loose and he picked it, drawing in wing Will Ferrier and he went over by the posts and with Simon Hoult converting, the lead was now reduced to 19 – 12. Some astute touch kicking by fly half Simon Hoult, saw Chelmsford gradually gain the ascendancy and when Chelmsford were awarded a penalty for being off side just outside the 22 metre line, Simon Hoult played the advantage and coolly dropped a goal to take the score to 19 – 15. A further penalty by Hoult saw the score line at 19 – 18, but again Chelmsford couldn’t make their pressure tell. Barking then made a break down the left hand side of the field and what followed was a good 10 minute period of pressure by the home side in Chelmsford’s 22 metre area.

The deciding score was made by the home side, when from a high kick ahead, the ball was fumbled by Chelmsford and a converted try was scored taking Barking into a lead of 26 – 18. Not to be outdone, Chelmsford had a chance of a kick at goal, but this was missed, however, with the last kick of the game, fly half Simon Hoult kicked a penalty from 35 metres out wide to salvage a bonus point for Chelmsford, as they finished within 7 points of Barking.

Coach, Eddie Gooby, said after the game that “this was another game that could have been the story of the season so far, I thought we had resolved our starts to games over the past few weeks, but today the first 10 minutes killed us. Conceding 19 points is hard for any team to come back from but that shows the character of this team. We got back to 19 – 18 and dominated the second half and we had a number of chances to win the game but just fell short at the last hurdle. What is a massive positive for me is that whilst we may not have won the last two games, we have started to pick up bonus points, something we were not doing at the being of the season, we are in a dog fight but we still have everything in our hands.”

This coming weekend sees Chelmsford at home to bottom of the table Luton, who recorded their first win of the season against Harrow last weekend. This will be the last game before the Christmas break and Chelmsford know they must win this game to draw away from the bottom 3 teams. The kick off is at 2.15pm.