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Writtle Wanderers RUFC |
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Writtle Wanderers RUFC |
March 2006 Match Reports
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4th March 2006
Writtle continued their quest for back to back promotions last
weekend with a home tie against Loughton. The home team visited Loughton
for their first game in Division 2 and suffered defeat by 13 points. As it
was the Wanderers were out for a much needed revenge to keep them ahead of
Dagenham in Division 2.
The game started scrappily with dropped ball from the kick off giving the
advantage to the visitors. It soon became clear, however, that the
visiting pack had little to offer despite their size. A series of
excellent ball steals by the mobile back row of Colin Jones, Tommy Young and Ben
Campion gave the impetus to Writtle early in the game and this unit was to prove
dominant throughout.
With the Loughton backs starved of possession they had little option but to
tackle their way back into the game. The visiting 10 looked especially
strong in this area and the ball rarely moved to the outside backs in the early
stages as he targeted his opposite number, Mike Brown. With such pressure
though, mistakes were sure to come and come they did. Repeated
infringement at the ruck and maul by the visiting forwards gave a penalty 5
metres out to the home side.
Intent on displaying their forward dominance the Writtle pack
opted for the scrum with devastating results. Penalty after penalty came
as the visitors interfered at the scrummage with more scrums their reward.
After four or five bites at the cherry the Wanderers pack decided that their
opponents had taken enough punishment and drove them well over for a textbook
pushover try awarded to No. 8, Campion, who clearly has much to learn about
control at the back of the scrum from the experienced Scott Taylor.
This opened the floodgates with the visiting pack going to pieces and,
effectively, dead on their feet with only 20 minutes played. From now on
Writtle exerted their dominance in all areas with Brown shaking off an early
ankle injury and John Nicolle coming into his own at inside centre. His
partner, Paul Reid, also had a storming game with virtually every ball going to
hand and him making yards at every opportunity. His fine performance was
topped with a well worked try from Brown’s miss pass. Steve Clark, back to
his more familiar full back role, also gave a virtually perfect performance with
a total of 27 points and 8 out of 9 kicks on target despite the swirling wind at
Fox Burrows Lane.
Come the second half and come the impact substitutions with John Smillie and
Andy Ross replacing Sean Culleton and Matt Morris, both of whom had strong games
at hooker and lock respectively. Smillie made an instant impact with a
caught kick off and a sixty yard sprint through heavy traffic to touch down
under the posts. The visitors were understandably shaken by this display
of raw pace and aggression and it was to continue for the remaining 25 minutes
of the games with Writtle piling on the points. An ugly incident involving
Dominic Pearce and the visiting No. 8, saw both players sin-binned for 10
minutes and for this period the visiting side seemed more interested in
disrupting the game than being involved in any sort of contest.
On Pearce’s return Writtle re-established their dominance with a further flurry
of three tries coming from some sublime handling and excellent lines of running
from the back division. Loughton simply had no answer to this late show of
fitness and talent and the game closed with the visitors up 57-0.
This win does much to confirm Writtle’s position at the head of Essex Division
2. It also confirms them as promoted for the 2nd year running in only the
club’s 4th season. They must now aim for promotion as league champions;
they are 2 points clear of Dagenham with points difference of +27 over their
nearest rivals. With Writtle seeing a rest week to come, however, Dagenham
can still catch up if they are able to string together some strong performances
in their last 3 league games.
The next home game for Writtle is on 25 March against Burnham-on-Crouch with a 3.00pm kick off. All supporters are welcome. Contact the club on 07841 864727 for more details, or visit the website at www.wwrufc.org.
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11th March 2006
Sorry, no report submitted...
The scoreboard in the Southend bar read played 15 won 15 for
the home side as Writtle turned up for this Merit Table game on a cold, grey
Saturday afternoon. The players seemed in quite a sombre mood as they took to
the field for the pre-match warm up. A couple of hangovers were apparent and
"The School of Rock" was concentrating on keeping his pre-match KFC from
resurfacing. However the players focussed themselves on the task at hand and
were sufficiently pumped up come kick off.
Writtle started the game the stronger side and having turned over their
opposition thanks to some good cleaning up by centre Mike Williams were able to
begin to push the Southend side backwards. The Writtle forwards began to
dominate their opposition and Southend had no option but to infringe in the ruck
giving Writtle the early penalty, which was narrowly missed by Dick Battye.
However the first points of the day were not long off for the visitors. Again
excellent ball was provided by the forwards who pushed Southend back onto their
own line. With players sucked into the ruck the ball was recycled quickly
through the backs allowing Simon Cook to sidestep the last man and touch over
for the try.
The Wanderers continued their dominance of the game and were hardly outside of
their opponents half for the first 40 minutes. The home side made a change in
the centres during the first half, with the replacement finding at first hand
the excellent Writtle defence with both Williams and Ant Rantell stopping him in
his tracks before the scoreline was soon extended further by the Writtle side.
Inside centre Colm Coyle made a trademark surging run into the Southend players
and with his legs pumping forced his way towards the line. With a number of
defenders being needed to stop him the overlap was created and Battye touched
down to extend the lead.
By this point the Southend players were beginning to become increasingly
frustrated with their lack of ball and further indiscretions allowed Writtle to
move towards their opponents try line. Again the ball was recycled quickly and
Writtle took the half time score to 0-17 thanks to a well taken try by
scrum-half Will Young. At the interval the players knew that the job was only
half done and that Southend still posed a serious threat to the Writtle side.
This was illustrated in the first exchange of the second half with Southend
scoring an excellent try made by their backs with the Southend 10 bursting
through the defence before setting up the inside-centre to cross the line.
However this was pretty much the only time Southend came close to breaching the
Writtle defence with some excellent tackling being put in throughout the pitch
by all players.
Writtle continued to look dangerous going forward with a lovely mix of pace and
power throughout the side. Rantell was proving to be a constant threat to
Southend and he was ably supported by Martin Fetherstone and Neil Theobald. When
the ball found its way into the backs they too looked likely to inflict damage
and it was through Cook that the final score of the game happened thanks to some
quick thinking to attack the blind-side. The most pleasing aspect of this try
was that it was scored in the last 10 minutes when Writtle played with only 13
men after injuries to Battye and Young forced them off the pitch. The
performance by Writtle when faced with playing with only 13 was gargantuan with
every player standing up to be counted.
The celebrations began in usual fashion and continued well into the night and
the early hours of the morning. Yet again a Saturday night finished in
Chelmsford's finest restaurant with Coyle, Williams and Club Leviathan Scott
Taylor all stopping off for the Subway of Truth! An extra slice of beef and
extra tokens meant that it was the perfect end to a perfect day!
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25th March 2006
Sorry, no report submitted...
After such a superb victory over Southend in their previous
encounter Writtle arrived at "The Home of Rugby" knowing that this was a game
they had to win in order to continue their assent up the league table. Several
familiar faces were welcomed back to the starting line-up with Jeremy Court and
Martyn Howarth returning from injury and work commitments respectively and The
Wanderers were also glad to welcome back several of the students from the
College.
The opening exchanges saw Writtle camped out in their opponents 22 with the side
piling pressure upon the visitors defence. The first try was not long in coming,
with quick ball secured by the forwards the Writtle backs were able to cut
through the defence like the proverbial hot knife through butter. With only the
full-back to beat outside centre Quan Marcdeth barged his way over the line, injuring the
Upminster player in the process.
If truth be told the result didn't ever really look in any danger after Writtle
had registered their first points of the day. It was not long before the lead
was extended further thanks to some quick hands yet again in the backs with
inside centre Steve Bristow showing good pace to cut through the Upminster
defence and dive under the posts. The final moment of the first half saw a third
try for the now cruising Writtle side, with Martin Fetherstone scoring a
trade-mark try to take his tally to 7 for the season. However the greatest
achievement of Featherstone's that afternoon was managing to keep his stomach
down, having finally realised that 5 pints of fresh orange, on a hangover,
before each game was not the best idea!
The second half was a scrappy affair at best with the highlight being a superb
break away try finished off by Glenn Richards, the support play of both Richards
and Bristow enabled Writtle to run the ball virtually the length of the pitch.
The deceptively difficult conversion from right in-front of the posts was missed
by Dave Rowan who took his leave at this apt moment. The second half also saw
the return to action of inspirational captain Gary Hall in place of Howarth in
the back row. However Hall's excitement soon got the better of him and he spent
10 minutes in the bin for attacking the oldest man on the pitch!
The second half became soured by some dirty play and the final whistle was met
by muted celebrations from both the Writtle players and the near capacity crowd.
A good win and a solid performance sees Writtle heading towards the end of the
season in some fine form. The atmosphere in the bar after the game was slightly
subdued considering both the 1sts and 2nds had won, and I'm also sorry to report
that the night did not end in a Subway for this reporter!
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