Chelmsford continued their unbeaten start to the season, scoring five converted tries, displaying some scintillating back play, against opposition who never gave up and often placed the Chelmsford defence under considerable pressure.

Chelmsford began the game playing up the slope. They went into the lead after five minutes when Jamie Ash gathered the ball deep and made an excellent break before finding second row Nick Crouch who made a well-timed pass to Jack Acorn for the first of his three tries. Joel Young who kicked well all afternoon both out of hand and from the ground added the additional points. Southwold throughout the game had the upper hand in the set pieces and after twenty minutes, following concerted pressure produced a hard earned try and a penalty to take the lead 10 to 7.

The next twenty minutes saw Chelmsford score three tries with fast and well-timed running and passing. The first of these tries saw the ball passed wide at pace to Acorn who broke for the line before passing the ball inside to ‘new dad’ Jamie Morrish to score. The next try was probably the best try of the afternoon, when both backs and forwards attacked at pace with some deft passing before releasing Acorn to score. The final try of the half was scored by Jimmy Allway, again following slick handling by the Chelmsford backs.

Half Time Chelmsford 28 Southwold 10.

The second half was a much more dour spectacle for the home supporters. Southwold dominated both the set scrums and the lineouts and had over 60% of the possession. The Chelmsford defence however was resolute with some hard tackling and often with ‘turn over ball’ being a result. The backs, however, seldom got the ball and when they did it was deep in their own half and a pressure relieving kick was required.
In the last few minutes of the game two tries were eventually scored, firstly by Chelmsford when Acorn went in for a try in the corner, following one of the few times Chelmsford got possession in the opponent’s half, and lastly a deserved try by Southwold when their centre, throwing a dummy, eventually found a gap in the Chelmsford defence.

Next week Chelmsford travel to Cantabrigians in search of their fifth victory.