Match Report (Home) 01/12/19 SWF 2 vs Canvey 3

It was a cold one this morning but Woodham turned up with fire in their bellies. Special mention goes to the referee Wally who stepped in to referee at the last minute and dropped everything to get up the club in time for kick off.
Canvey who are known for being a large physical team came on strong from the outset but Woodham showed great heart with every member of the team stepping up to defend where needed. Crunching tackles by Noah Watkins and Dan Williams held back a barrage of attack by Canvey. James Skelt was on form with his kicking today and cleared his line well. The talented Canvey fullback collected and ran the ball back in, another sequence of great tackles was unfortunately not enough to stop the biggest 13-year-old you’ve ever seen running in a try with 57 Woodham players hanging off him.
A fantastic effort by the second largest 13-year-old you’ve ever seen saw Canvey run in a second try.
Woodham stayed determined and fought back valiantly and managed to get themselves up into the Canvey 22. A determined crash ball drive saw them within 10m of the line, Dan Williams picked up the ball and threw himself into the corner, over the line and touched down only to discover that the sharp-eyed ref had seen one blade of white grass touching Dan’s boot. It was an unlucky end to a fantastic effort.
Half time saw a determined start with a battered but not broken Woodham coming out strong. They drove the ball into the Canvey 22 and earned a penalty. George Tickner and James Skelt had been using some innovative attempts on previous penalties which made the route 1 approach of big Joe McClure a shock for Canvey. They were surprised to find a Joe shaped hole in their defensive line and the ball touched down for Woodham’s first try.
George Tickner found himself the first to every breakdown and at times Woodham could have contested the rucks more.
Step up Joe McClure who capitalised on a great crash ball drive by Noah Watkins and put in a fantastic individual effort to run through multiple Canvey players to score a fantastic 2nd try. It was for this reason that Joe McClure was awarded the “Stinky Boot of Love” as man of the match.
Canvey kicked deep and this was collected up by Presley Llewellyn who made a great run that threatened to pierce the Canvey defence but came up just short.
Canvey pressured again in the rucks and managed to score the final try taking the final score to 3-2 to Canvey.
That said, when you consider the match played against Canvey at the end of last season this was a phenomenal effort by every member of the Woodham squad who left it all on the field. If this level of development continues, Woodham will become a force to reckoned with come the 2nd half of the season.