Chelmsford beaten in derby clash (From Chelmsford Weekly News)

Chelmsford beaten in derby clash

5:05pm Wednesday 13th February 2013 in Local Sport

RUGBY: Braintree took the bragging rights 24-11 in this highly entertaining local derby, with their fifth win in a row, to see them climb over Chelmsford, who in turn drop to sixth place in table.

Bad luck struck Chelmsford in the first minute of the game, when flanker Jack Venn had to leave the field with a shoulder injury and he was replaced by Paul Redford.

Chelmsford were first on the score sheet within five minutes when Simon Hoult kicked a penalty from in front of the posts, after Braintree had been penalised for hands in the ruck.

Both sides showed a willingness to run with the ball and Hoult was making some telling kicks to touch to keep the pressure on the home side.

It was not until 25 minutes that Braintree scored their first points when from a scrum they broke blind and Chelmsford’s back row were slow in getting up and then a missed tackle in the centre saw Braintree’s Chas Monk go over for an unconverted try to take the score to 5–3 in their favour.

Hoult kicked a further long range penalty from fully 35 metres out when the home side were penalised for coming into the side of the ruck.

At 5-6 at half time it was anybody’s game, and with Thomas Taylor coming on at scrum half for Chelmsford in place of Luke Venn in the 2nd half, Chelmsford managed to get quicker ball to their backs.

Unfortunately for the visitors, Hoult failed narrowly with another long range penalty kick and then shortly afterwards Chelmsford made a great break from their own half when Nick Hankin came into the line at speed and passed inside to wing Tatenda Gurure, who kicked ahead for centre Rhys Mason, but the ball found its way to touch.

Braintree then applied some pressure on the game and from a line out a catch and drive saw John Smillie score a try which was converted by Monk to take the home side into a 12-6 lead.

Five minutes later a quick tap penalty was taken by the hosts and with the ball being recycled, it was fed out to the left hand side where Ben Ladyman scored in the corner to increase Braintree’s lead to 17-6.

Not to be outdone, Chelmsford came back strongly and from the kick off they applied pressure on the hosts and stole the ball, which was then fed down the back line for pacy wing Seb Hill to score a great try in the corner, reducing the deficit to six points.

Both sides were now looking for the win, but in the final few moments of the game the ball found its way into the Chelmsford 22 and with Chelmsford attempting to run the ball from their own half, the ball was dropped in the centre, with the result that the ball was picked up by Braintree, with Ladyman going over for his second try, which was duly converted by Monk to give the hosts a more comfortable winning margin of 24–11.

Coach Eddie Gooby said: “It was a very frustrating day. The team played well, but the last 5 per cent of our play let us down.”