Braintree Rugby Club finish with a flourish

4:07pm Tuesday 22nd April 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Braintree finished the London League division three north east season with a flourish as their immense pack helped avenge Harlow's victory at Robbs Wood earlier in the season.

The 32-10 win sees Braintree cement their place in division three north east for next season with local rivals Ipswich and Colchester relegated.

The manner of the result will have delighted the Black and Ambers' travelling support, as they outclassed their hosts in every department.

Braintree chairman of selectors Jeff Lewis said: "We were more decisive than Harlow when we had the ball and our pack were absolutely immense.

"It was nice to finish the season with a win and now we can look forward to improving our standing at this level when we return to league action in September."

Playing with the wind in the first half Braintree set about Harlow from the off and took a third-minute lead when Charles Monk scored his first try of the season.

Scrum-half Darren Page went blind from a ten-metre scrum and fed Elliott Dawson before taking the return pass and popping the ball to Monk, who powered over from five metres.

Monk notched the conversion to give his side a 7-0 lead and although Harlow put Braintree on the back foot thereafter, the home side were unable to make their possession count.

The visiting pack tackled everything that moved and it was no surprise when Monk scored a 29th penalty, after Harlow were penalised for offside.

Home full-back Josh Bohl reduced the arrears with a 36th minute penalty of his own after Braintree fell foul of the offside laws.

But it proved merely a temporary blip.

With half-time approaching outside centre Tom Green took the ball inside Harlow's 22 and powered past several tackles before scoring under the posts.

Top-scorer Monk did the honours with his boot to give the visitors a 17-3 interval lead and bring his tally for the season to 95.

After the break Harlow had the wind at their backs and spent the first ten minutes camped inside Braintree's territory.

But crucially they were unable to turn their share of ball into points, a factor which ultimately decided the outcome of the match.

Despite losing flanker Jamie Durham to a suspected broken ankle on 52 minutes, the Black and Ambers stretched their lead a minute later with their third try of the day.

Following a kick to touch the visitors performed a trademark catch and drive move from the resulting line-out to enable hooker Stevie Sewell to score wide out left.

Monk was unable to add to his points total and there was a brief flurry of concern when Harlow hit back on 64 minutes. Following a period of pressure inside their 22, Braintree were finally forced to capitulate and winger Francis Brown scored a try which was converted by Bohl.

Braintree could have shut up shop at 22-10 after second row Mark Loftus was yellow-carded for a technical offence.

But to their credit they continued to press forward and Loftus returned to the action to collect a deft chip forward by Sewell and score in the left corner.

The visitors wrapped the game up from the re-start when flanker Tom Carslake went over to round off a fine move involving Page.