Woodham Win away at Basildon

This week Woodham travelled the short distance to local club Basildon for a reverse of the friendly fixture from earlier in the season. At that match Basildon came out victorious winning 20 - 40, so Woodham were determined to over turn the home side this time round.

Basildon kicked off and were putting the Woodham team under pressure from the outset. Woodham seemed to struggle to settle and find their stride, loosing out at the ruck to a more organised Basildon attack. Basildon struck first within the first couple of minutes through well worked hands. Woodham continued to struggle to find their feet and Basildon took full advantage adding 2 more try's to take the score to 15-0 inside the first 10 minutes.

Woodham made a couple of changes and the team seemed to realise they were here to play rugby. The forwards worked well but were slow to the breakdown, with Basildon taking full advantage. Jody came of worse from a hard tackle to one of Basildon's larger players, sustaining an injury to his arm (which would later be confirmed as a break). However the ball made its way out to the backs and, after passing through several pairs of hands, driving forward Woodham scored through H. This spurred Woodham on, and Harrison charged over for Woodham's 2nd try. Woodham again pushed hard and the backs didn't disappoint with a nice show of hands and supporting play at the ruck, drove Basildon back deep into their 22, before Lewis W tackled on the line, managed to reach over to bring the score level at the end of the half 15 -15.

The team, given a push from the coaches during the break, continued to apply the pressure to Basildon as the second half commenced. The forwards driving through the Basildon defence and pushed them back 10 meters each time, before releasing the ball to Harrison who scored his second of the game. Basildon were not going to lay down, and a break through what had been a strong Woodham defence in the 2nd half, saw Basildon cross the line to level the match at 20 - 20.

Woodham dug deep and pushing Basildon back, forced a error with 'Cheeky' intercepting a pass and racing for the line. He handed off one tackle before breaking free and touched down for Woodham to take the lead. But Woodham were not finished and kept up the pressure. Again a nice play through the hands saw H break free to cross for his second of the match, 20 - 30 to Woodham. At this point Basildon's heads seemed to drop, and breaking through the tackles Harrison crossed for his hat trick. Harrison then ripped the ball and charged through from the restart taking the score to 20 - 40. However he wasn't finished and crossed the Basildon line once more, just before the end of the game, for his 5th try and the final score 20 - 45.

A great game of rugby shown by both teams this morning, and Woodham turned round a not so great start to come out 5 tries ahead. Player of the Match went to Harrison with Effort of the Match going to Ross, although to be fair there were so many players in contention for both this week the coaches had a difficult task to award the trophy's.