Old Priorians 15 Chelmsford 20
(London 1 North)

Chelmsford kept alive their hopes of retaining their London 1 League status with a tremendous battling performance at Greenford last weekend to defeat a determined Old Priorians side and in so doing climbed to 9th position in the league table with 42 points. Defeats for both Chingford and Ruislip and a draw for Barking meant that Chelmsford are now 3 points above the 3rd team in the drop zone.

Chelmsford were missing some key personnel, but welcomed back influential loose head prop, Stephen Prest from a long term hamstring injury. The visitors deserved their win against a side who had lost their previous 4 games, but were more or less assured of their status in this league for another season. Conversely for Chelmsford the battle was on to stave off relegation, however, this win, which was their 8th of the season, was only the 2nd time that they had achieved back to back victories. Whilst the game was not for the purists and wasn’t a spectacle, it nevertheless had its exciting moments, and it turned out to be a tense and nervy affair, especially for the visitors, but they managed to survive a late challenge from the home side to take home a priceless 4 points.

From a Chelmsford perspective, it couldn’t have got off to a better start, playing in to a stiff breeze, and only into the 2nd minute of the game, the home side were pressing in Chelmsford’s 22, only for a loose pass to be intercepted by centre, Adam Cunnah, who sprinted the full length of the field for a try underneath the posts and with the conversion by Simon Hoult, Chelmsford went into a 7 – 0 lead. Following the try, the home side began to pressurise Chelmsford mainly by playing a flat passing game and using their fly half and inside centre to cut holes into the Chelmsford defence, which was not at its best for most of the game. It is true to say that whilst the hosts dominated the first half, they couldn’t turn the amount of possession into points, mainly because their finishing let them down. Once again another interception by Adam Cunnah saw him clear, but he was stopped in his tracks, literally by his shirt tails, and then he fell awkwardly to aggravate a broken hand injury sustained 2 weeks ago, so he departed to be replaced by Jack Acorn.

The only other points of the first half were a penalty to Old Priorians in the 38th minute of normal time, when Chelmsford were penalised for being off their feet. From the kick off the home side broke from their own 22 into Chelmsford’s 22 and with centre Dan Idundun, adjudged to have slowed the ball down, and holding on, Chelmsford were penalised, but some retaliation by the home side in the form of stamping, led to the penalty being reversed. Both players were then yellow carded for 10 minutes.

Chelmsford now led by 7 – 3 at half time and in the 2nd half had the wind at their backs. Prop Stephen Prest was then replaced by Phil Deschamps. The visitors increased their lead to 10 – 3 when Old Priorians were penalised for hands in the scrum and fly half Simon Hoult made no mistake from just inside the 22 metre area. Chris Hoult had to leave the field temporarily for a blood injury to his nose and then Sid Wright replaced 2nd row, Alex Ellis. 15 minutes into the 2nd half, misfortune struck the home side, when Oli Wright playing at flanker, put in a great tackle on the home side’s fly half, he spilled the ball and it was picked up by Simon Hoult, who ran in unopposed to score a try by the posts and with the successful conversion, Chelmsford now led by 17 – 3. Chelmsford were then subjected to some pressure by the home side and 5 minutes later they managed to force their way over by the posts for a converted try to reduce the arrears to 17 – 10. Chelmsford were now on the back foot and were guilty of giving away penalties. From one of these they were penalised for pulling down a maul, the ball was drilled into Chelmsford’s 22 area and from the ensuing line out the home side managed to break through Chelmsford’s cover and score an unconverted try to reduce the arrears further to 17 – 15.
In the 36th minute of normal time, Old Priorians were penalised for pulling the scrum down, but Simon Hoult failed narrowly with his penalty attempt from 45 metres, similarly a couple of minutes later the home side failed with a penalty kick after Chelmsford were penalised for hands in the ruck. However, in the 1st minute of injury time Simon Hoult slotted over a great penalty from just inside the home side’s half, when they were penalised for standing up in the scrum to take Chelmsford into a 20 – 15 lead. Despite several minutes of injury time, Chelmsford managed to survive some pressure from the home side and close out the game to record a priceless victory in what has proved to be a testing and exciting season for all those involved at the club.

Coach Eddie Gooby said after the game: “This was a massive win for us today, yes we rode our luck a bit but we deserved this win . We all know that we could have played better today, but the result was all that mattered. Adam Cunnah’s 80 metre interception try gave us a fantastic start and from this we dug in to secure a very important win. I keep on saying this, but it shows how much we have improved by turning tight games into wins. Unfortunately for us we picked up a few knocks so another weeks’ rest will help with the recouperation. Next up will be Brentwood, who are having a fantastic season and it is going to need a special effort from the boys to win this game, but I am sure that we will be up for the game and give it our best shot.”

The next game is at home against Brentwood on Saturday 2nd April, the kick off is at 3pm at Coronation Park.