Chelmsford 22 Woodford 36 (From Chelmsford Weekly News)

Chelmsford 22 Woodford 36

11:16am Thursday 28th February 2013 in Sport

RUGBY: CHELMSFORD entertained in form side Woodford last weekend on a bitterly cold afternoon at Coronation Park and whilst this was a keenly contested affair, the visitors ran out worthy winners, thanks to a dominant performance by their pack, who caused Chelmsford a lot of problems in the scrum and also in the loose.

Chelmsford were effectively outmuscled by a much more physical and robust side and whilst the home side never gave up they were certainly second best on the day.

To add to Chelmsford’s woes they also lost prop Dean Lester with a neck injury and young hooker, Seth Robinson also had to leave the field. This defeat almost certainly ended any hopes Chelmsford had of finishing runners-up in the league to North Walsham.

Woodford took the lead in the second minute when they worked the ball round the blind side for a try in the left hand corner which was duly converted to take them into a 7-0 lead.

Chelmsford’s best spell came midway through the first half when they eventually drew level with their opponents. Following a penalty to touch, Chelmsford won the ensuing line out and the ball went through the phases before back row Paul Redford managed to force his way over for a try, which was duly converted by fly half Simon Hoult.

Some minutes later Chelmsford were awarded another penalty and second row Nick Sany won the ball at the line-out and slipped it to scrum half Luke Venn, who saw a gap in the Woodford defence to dart over for a well taken try to take Chelmsford into a 12-7 lead.

The lead didn’t last for long and on the half-hour mark some good passing between Woodford’s big forwards saw them touch down near the posts to regain the lead by 14-12. Two further tries before half time effectively ended the game as a contest.

A converted try in the left hand corner saw the lead extended to 19-12 and then just on the stroke of half time, Chelmsford dropped off the tackles and saw the visitors score the fourth try to go into half time at 26-12 in the lead.

The second half needed an early score to get Chelmsford back into the match, but whilst they scored first, it wasn’t until 30 minutes into the half that they scored a further try when after some good pressure on the Woodford line, right wing, Tatenda Gurure, went over for a try to reduce the arrears to 17-26.

Woodford then extended their lead through a penalty kick and then once again poor tackling saw the visitors score their fifth try to bring the score to 36-17.

Chelmsford managed a further try in injury time through Gurure again, when he made a good run, only to be half tackled and he then got up to force himself over the line to bring the score to a 36-22 win for the visitors.

Coach Eddie Gooby said: “Today was not to be for the team. We came up against a mature pack who knew their job and executed it well."