Essex Festival

This week the U9’s were away for the Essex Festival at Southend. Woodham were drawn into pool 3 of 4 along with Braintree, Brentwood, Burnham and Upper Clapton and were to play on pitch 16. The format was to be one half of 8 minutes, with no second half and referees for each pitch were members of the Southend first team.

Woodhams first match was against Braintree, with Joshua N and Jake acting as Subs. Woodham lost away several weeks ago to a strong Braintree side. Today was to be more of the same and Braintree took an early lead. Woodham were slow to wake up and paid the price with Braintree firmly camped in the Woodham half. Finally after 6 minutes Woodham started to regroup and hold Braintree back in their own half. They were however unable to hold off the Braintree attack and the final score was 6 – 0 to Braintree.

After a break and regroup, with some coaching from Paul, the boys took on Upper Clapton. The last time the boys played them was at the Upper Clapton Festival last year in the final. This match saw Harvey and Ben acting as subs. The first couple of minutes saw both teams testing each other out resulting with a try each. Woodham then started to dominate the play and Upper Clapton were unable to respond. Woodham had a narrow miss from Ashley running ¼ of the pitch only to be tackled on the try line and lose control of the ball. However, tries from Jake (x2), Harvey and Oliver saw Woodham win out at the whistle 4 – 1 and a Win to lift the team’s spirits.

The 3rd match Woodham were in action against Brentwood. Samuel and Toby taking the subs positions for this game. Brentwood started well and took a swift lead. Woodham tackled well but were not able to hold back the strong Brentwood team. Final score at the whistle was 5 – 0 to Brentwood.

The last match of the pool saw Woodham against Burnham. Woodham had played Burnham twice this season and both matches we close. Both sides were evenly matched from the off with tries from Woodham and Burnham. However 2 more tries from Woodham were only answered by one from Burnham allowing Woodham to win through at the end of 8 minutes. Tries from Ben and Joshua (x2) taking Woodham through to the bowl playoffs.

The first round of the bowl playoff saw Woodham up against Chingford. Woodham needed to win to progress to the final of the bowl. Harvey and Samuel taking the subs positions Woodham started well holding Chingford back in their own half. However a mistake saw Chingford win the ball and run round the outside of the Woodham defence to score after the Woodham pack chased down the line to the corner.

After the restart, Woodham again showed promise only to leave themselves open again for a run round the outside and again a chase down the wing to a second try for Chingford in the corner. Woodham put up a good effort in defence holding Chingford back again, but for a third time allowed them through to score. Woodhams hopes of bringing home the bowl had ended with the whistle and Chingford winning out 4 – 0.

Today’s team were Joshua N, Ross, Jake, Ashley, Harvey, Toby, Oliver, Ben and Samuel. Man of the Match was Ashley.