BRAINTREE U14 31

MALDON U14 28

WITH a limited squad and a short pre-season Braintree Rugby Club's under-14s knew they had to hit the ground running if they were to gain the advantage in a tough season's opener against Maldon.

Strong running and rucking in the opening few minutes saw Braintree secure field position and good ball and Callum Smit was able to crash over the line for an opening score.

Braintree then took the upper hand at the restart and forced Maldon back to their 22, with Rafe Donnelly capitalising on a loose kick that didn’t find touch and a weaving run from the halfway line took him under the posts to score.

Maldon recovered well from being 12-0 down in the first five minutes to pull the score back to 12-7 with a converted try, but Braintree won a scrum against the head and Luis Hogg showed a good turn of pace to run in under the posts.

As legs began to tire for both sets of players, Maldon we able to add three further converted tries, but Donnelly grabbed another brace and with Hogg converting three of Braintree's five tries, they claimed a narrow 31-28 victory.