BRAINTREE RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB 2018/19 SEASON.
Any copy queries to BRUFC Publicity Officer John Troup on 07860-179347.

CHELMSFORD…12 BRAINTREE…10 (London 3 Essex)

BRAINTREE suffered derby heartache on Saturday as they narrowly lost a blood and thunder encounter with their great rivals from further down the A12.
After losing the toss and being made to play with a significant slope to their advantage in the first half Tree struggled to get their hands on the ball for the first 10 minutes.
But once they’d conquered their early jitters the black and ambers started to dominate the play, and spent most of the first half camped in the opposing 22.
Unfortunately they kept ceding possession at crucial moments and were unable to capitalise on their territorial advantage as much as they would have liked.
The first and only score of the opening half came on 28 minutes when the ball was illegally kicked out of the scrum by a Chelmsford boot, earning Tree a penalty in front of the posts.
Scrum-half Keelan Joslin slotted the chance to give his side a 3-0 lead, but though Tree continued to dominate for the remainder of the half they were unable to add to their tally.
After the interval Chelmsford, now playing with the gradient to their advantage, piled on the pressure and looked capable of scoring from every attack.
But they went further behind eight minutes in when a big tackle by full-back Dominic Dann saw the ball fly loose.
Winger Tom Drew gathered it into his arms before running three quarters of the length of the pitch to score, leaving a trail of defenders in his wake.
Dann then rounded off the move he had started by stepping up to pot the conversion and give his side a 10-0 lead.
Predictably Chelmsford were fired up by the score and quickly built another period of sustained pressure which culminated in an unconverted 56th minute try. 5-10.
Despite playing up the slope Tree did manage to force play into Chelmsford 22’s for long periods, but couldn’t find the killer pass at the right moment to force home their advantage.
And their profligacy hit them hard when they conceded a converted try out wide deep into injury time which gave the home side a two-point lead with only minutes remaining. 12-10.
Even then Tree managed to force a late penalty which could have seen them snatch victory from the jaws of defeat but were forced to watch it drift agonisingly wide from distance.
BRUFC Chair of Selectors David Gilder said: “Chelmsford have just come down from the league above and were an unknown quantity for us.
“It was an extremely close game as the score suggests and it really could have gone either way.
“The scrums were very even, the lineouts pretty much went to the throwing side and there was not much to choose between the backs.
“Heavily sloping pitches always seem to put a different spin on games and generally come down to who manages the slope the best.
“We were guilty of squandering chances down the slope first half when we really should have put the game to bed.
”A special word for Jamie Stanhope who must have been close on a hundred tackles throughout the game.”
Head Coach Jamie Clarke added: “Despite the result and the pain of losing a derby match I was proud of the lads today.
“I thought we dominated, certainly in the first half, and I thought we were the better team overall, but we needed to be a bit more clinical with our chances.
“Playing away at Chelmsford is always going to be difficult but we stuck to our game plan and for large parts of the game we were in control.
“The players now know, if they didn’t already, that we can compete with any team in this division and our targets for the season are more than achievable.”
Tree, who sit third in the London 3 Essex table, now look forward to their first home game of the season when they entertain Canvey Island at Robbs Wood this weekend.

BRUFC: Dann, Drew, Rollit-Mason, J Young, Whyatt, Adams, Keelan Joslin, D Coote, Hardin, Prince, Mlambo, Fouche, Pickles, J Stanhope, Moss. Reps: W Turner, Thompson, Page.
Colebrook Offshore Ltd man of the match: Jeremy Stanhope.