This week saw Brentwood make the journey to play a Harlow team they had narrowly lost to twice last season.

From a Brentwood perspective it was a very sleepy start and, one decent scrum aside, I don’t actually think Brentwood touched the ball for the opening ten minutes, Harlow retaining possession well and Brentwood’s defence uncharacteristically passive.

It came as no surprise then when Harlow opened the scoring with about 12 minutes gone after a lengthy spell in Brentwood’s 22, a sense of waiting for the inevitable when Harlow skipped through Brentwood’s non-existent ruck guard, 7-0.

The game continued much in the same vein, Harlow with all the possession and playing all of the rugby, Brentwood having to make a lot of tackles and having the ball, by my estimations, for thirty whole seconds before they were penalised for holding on. The subsequent penalty was kicked towards the corner by Harlow, a good lineout drill and maul seeing Brentwood infringe once more, this time the ball being put into touch 5 metres out. Harlow elected for the same again, another good lineout drill and another strong maul and they were over for their second, 14-0.
With 25 minutes now gone, Brentwood finally managed to get themselves into the game with a period of possession in Harlow’s 22 looking promising until an untimely holding on penalty allowed Harlow to relieve the pressure. It was a theme that was unfortunately to become prevalent for Brentwood in this game, finding themselves pinged off the park for the next 10 or so minutes every time an attack started to look like it was going somewhere, Harlow winning the battle on the floor by a long distance.

It took until nearly half time for Brentwood to get some points on the board, Luke Watson pouncing on a loose Harlow pass and hacking through before being pushed in his pursuit of the ball which gave Brentwood a penalty just outside the 22. Into the corner it went, and Jack Rocke found James Killington with the lineout throw, the forwards setting the maul and patiently trundling over, Jack Rocke at the back emerging with the ball for the try. Sam Cappaert’s conversion was good and with Brentwood actually having scored the try before half time for once there was the slightest hint of optimism from the travelling Brentwood support, 14-7.

Brentwood came out far livelier in the second half, a strong carry from James Vogel into the midfield from a lineout saw Luke Watson break up the wing, Harlow just bundling him into touch shy of the try line. Brentwood kept the pressure on, Harlow’s clearance kick not getting far and then winning a penalty from a scrum after an awry lineout. Again, Brentwood went to the corner and this time the throw to Matt Whaley at the back was accurate and, as it had worked before, Brentwood went for the same again and garnered the same result, another maul try for Jack Rocke (to add to his personal stats of 507m metres made and 31 tackles completed of course…). Sam Cappaert added the extras, 14-14.

Both teams then traded penalties, Brentwood first followed by Harlow to draw the scores level at 17 all before Brentwood found themselves on the defence again in their own 22. This time though, Eamon Tiernan managed to pilfer the ball with Harlow only 5 out, putting a massive boot on it to get Brentwood almost back to Harlow’s 22. The lineout saw Dan Suttle get a big mitt to Harlow’s throw and whilst the ball just bounced back to Harlow it was all disjointed enough for Brentwood to get over the ball in the next phase, earning another kickable penalty opportunity which Sam Cappaert converted, 17-20.

Sadly, for Brentwood with 15 minutes left to play that was where the good news ended. With Harlow still dominating the battle on the floor, Brentwood again found themselves pinged for holding on and from the ensuing lineout Brentwood couldn’t live with Harlow’s pace and offloading game, conceding huge amounts of ground and forcing Ewan May into a big one on one tackle to prevent a try. Unfortunately, it only delayed the inevitable, Harlow recycling and scoring in the phase after, 24-20.

Whilst pointwise the game was still in Brentwood’s grasp, with every further holding on penalty or turnover the game slipped further away but it was particularly frustrating that with only a couple of minutes left Harlow worked a mismatch on the wing to steam away for the breakaway try and take Brentwood’s bonus point with them, 31-20 and fulltime not long after.

Credit must go to Harlow who were the better team on the day but for Brentwood this was a particularly irksome one with everything just feeling a bit off from the get-go and, having worked hard to get back into the lead, frustrating to end up not coming away with at least a losing bonus point.

Having had a rest week (yes, I am aware the report is running late…) and with hopefully a few of the walking wounded patched up, this Saturday Brentwood take on Holt at King George’s. Holt currently sit in 10th with their one win to date coming against Stowmarket but having won at King George’s last season they will make the trip down full of confidence that they can do the same again; another stern test for Brentwood if they want to not lose ground on the top of the table.