Maldon too strong

This week Woodham were hosts to a try match against local clubs Billericay and Maldon. The pitches were in good condition but the weather was cold with intermittent rain.

Woodham would play Billericay first, who we played away a number of weeks ago and come out on top. Next up would be Maldon followed by a final match between Billericay and Maldon.

Woodham started strong against Billericay and were dominant in the Ruck and Maul, turning over the ball on a number of occasions. The effort of the forwards was strong although we were a little high in the Ruck on a number of occasions, but Woodham were first to score through a well worked try from Ox. Woodham soon followed up with 2 more tried for Rhino and Harrison.

In the second half Billericay started to fight back and their determination and passing the ball out wide allows them to get one back on the hosts. There would be more of the same form Woodham but an excellent defence held Billericay back on the line on a number of occasions. Woodham would again cross the line for the final try of the match from Ox, although at the the end of the match the ref did apologise for missing the fact that Ox had run with the ball from the back of the scrum rather than passing.

After a few minutes break the Woodham boys took on Maldon. They knew from the off that this would be a harder match as Maldon were large than Woodham and looked well drilled. Although Maldon had the main stay of the possession for the 1st half of the match, Woodham's defence held strong from well within their own 22m line. however the strength of Maldon shone through and they eventually broke the Woodham defence to power over the line.

More would follow for the rest of the half but Maldon showed a dominance for the 2nd half and again put players over the line to score. The final score was 0-4 to Maldon, but Woodham definitely improved on previous weeks with the forwards working well together. The only down side for the boys today was occasionally the forwards got in the way of the backs which made it difficult for them to run with the ball in hand.

Next week were back to training at home, followed by an away match at Wanstead the week after. Man of the Match for tackling this week was Harrison and effort of the week went to Jamie.