Chelmsford 16 South Woodham Ferrers 5
(London 2 North East League)

Chelmsford came from behind to see off local rivals, South Woodham Ferrers, in a tense and competitive derby game, which was played at a fast pace to record an ultimately deserved victory by 3 penalties, one try and a conversion to one try.

Chelmsford had to shuffle their side, as influential backs, Simon Hoult, Jamie Ash and new centre Adam Cunnah were all unavailable from the previous week, plus wing Will Ferrier and prop Phil Dechamp were both injured against Rochford. Also hooker Seth Robinson has still not recovered from a back injury, so skipper and No 8 Paul Redford continued in his hooking role. The home side gave league debuts to Luke Cunnah, fly half and Jack Acorn on the right wing.

Woodham played down the slope in the first half and were first on the attack, showing their strengths, which come from a strong running forward pack. Chelmsford were uneasy in the initial stages and showed some nervousness, as they were conscious of the fact that Woodham did the double over them last season, which was their first season in this division. They gave a penalty away after 10 minutes, but luckily a long range kick from 45 metres fell just underneath the posts. However, Woodham did manage to score five minutes later when good ball was secured from a scrum and with the ball being fed down the backline, right wing, Warren Duggan beat his opposite number to touch down for an unconverted try to take Woodham into a 5 – 0 lead.

Chelmsford were guilty of giving away a number of penalties, but luckily Woodham didn’t take full advantage of this. Chelmsford then reduced the arrears to 2 points, following a successful penalty kick from debutant Luke Cunnah, after Woodham were guilty of not rolling away in a tackle situation. Woodham had a chance to increase their lead through a penalty kick, which narrowly failed and Chelmsford themselves had two chances of penalty kicks, which both fell wide. Chelmsford were probably the happier side to reach half time with just a 2 point deficit.

Three tactical substitutions were made at half time by Chelmsford Coach, Eddie Gooby in an effort to freshen up the side. Chelmsford did manage to exert some early pressure on Woodham in their own 22, but a chip kick ahead by Luke Cunnah went out of play, when perhaps they should have kept the ball in their hands and exert more pressure on the visitors defence. A relief kick saw the ball driven back into Chelmsford’s half and the impetus was lost. As a consequence Woodham put together a series of good forward drives, but they were ultimately undone by some poor handling and some tenacious defence from the home side. After 20 minutes fly half, Luke Cunnah, put Chelmsford ahead for the first time in the game from a penalty kick and this seemed to galvanise the Chelmsford forwards, who became more prominent and they began to obtain some good turnover ball.

Five minutes later Cunnah was successful with third penalty kick to take Chelmsford into a 9 – 5 lead. Whilst the latter stages of the game were a little scrappy, eight minutes from the end, Woodham were found guilty of boring in at the scrum and the resultant penalty kick saw Chelmsford into Woodham’s 22. From a set scrum, scrum half, Luke Venn saw a gap in the visitor’s defence and he beat several men to score a try by the posts and with the conversion by Cunnah, Chelmsford were now 16 – 5 in the lead. Despite some late surges by the visitors, Chelmsford’s defence held firm and in the end they ran out deserved winners.

Eddie Gooby said after the game,“ in losing to Woodham twice last year we knew it would be a hard and physical encounter and it did not disappoint anyone. Having to make five changes from the week before, the boys put in two great training sessions this week and the youngsters that came into the squad were fantastic.
They say a side’s defence wins games and today from numbers 1 to 18 our defence was excellent and when the opportunity came we took our chance to score a great team try. Woodham have big runners who cross the gain line very well, but we chopped them down and turned the ball over with great effect. The way we controlled our game plan and mixed up our styles when needed shows this group of players are learning fast and understanding the coaching team’s game plans.

This game should give the boys a lot of confidence to move on this season. I have players coming back this week so training is going to be very interesting to see how everyone reacts. Having competition in every position this year means no player can rest on last week’s performance. This coming Saturday we have another tough local derby at Braintree so the boys will have to refocus and prepare for another tough encounter.”