WITHAM II 20

HALSTEAD TEMPLARS 5

Friendly

WITHAM Rugby Club's seconds bounced back from a half-time deficit to win their friendly match against a strong and experienced Halstead Templars side.

The first half got under way with Witham on the back foot and having to soak up lots of early pressure.

There was some great defending by the young Witham players with some good lines being run and some strong tackling from Doulton Wells and Mike Harrison.

Midway through the first half , though, Witham reduced to 14 men as they had a player sin-binned and Halstead took advantage to score a try from a line-out for a 5-0 lead at half-time.

The second half started with Witham restored to full strength, though, and they started in a ferocious mood.

Some bashing runs came from Harrison, Wells and Steve Johanson that gave a great platform for the backs to work from and it wasn't long before Rob Bennett had a storming run down the wing.

It looked as though he had scored a try only for it be disallowed as he was in touch when he placed the ball, but they soon did pull level.

Witham stole a ball from a ruck and great vision from Lee Higham saw him kick forward for debutant Harry to grab the ball and touch down.

The hosts were now controlling this game and put Halstead under pressure again leading to a penalty that was converted by Luke Stanbridge for an 8-5.

Another attack then saw Jon Beales go on a storming run to score under the posts for a converted try and a 15-5 lead and when hooker Jake Westwood went over for his first try for the club, Witham celebrated a 20-5 victory.