With Brentwood’s pitches frozen too solidly to be playable and in order to not have to rearrange the fixture, this week Brentwood forfeited home advantage in favour of borrowing Eton Manor’s unfrozen artificial pitch for a chilly sub-zero kick-off at 5pm under the floodlights.

It didn’t take long for Brentwood to warm their travelling support, an overthrown Wanstead lineout was nabbed by Kieran Ballinger, Ewan May following up with a bouncing kick towards the corner which was knocked on and gave Brentwood an attacking scrum and then a penalty from the subsequent attack. Ewan May’s touch finder landed 5 metres out and Andy Sutton’s lineout throw found James Killington who set the maul, Jack Mayes emerging from the bottom of the pile for the try, with Ewan’s extras 7-0.

Six minutes later, after both teams had traded possession mostly in the middle of the field, Wanstead reduced the deficit with 3 points from the boot after a Brentwood indiscretion to take the score to 7-3 before Brentwood added their second of the evening 5 or so minutes later.

Brentwood’s build up was patient, started by Eamon Tiernan carrying hard from a scrum between Wanstead’s 22 and 10 metre line before the ball was recycled through various phases and carries, Tom Fahy and James Vogel prominent before Any Sutton took play into the 22. The ball went right and was crashed up once more by Eamon Tiernan before being recycled and out quickly from Kieran Ballinger to Ewan May who spotted the defensive line rushing up and cut back inside, going straight through a gap by the side of the previous ruck and evading a couple of defenders to score under the posts, the conversion to his own try taking the score to 14-3.

With another 8 minutes gone, Brentwood set about adding a third try after some more patient build-up. A quick tap penalty after another well executed lineout in Wanstead’s 22 gave Brentwood a good position from which to start, Andy Sutton, Will McArthur and Tom Fahy with successive strong carries before Eamon Tiernan picked up from the ruck and barrelled to within a couple of metres. Brentwood fanned left quickly and with men over, Wanstead’s defence was unable to commit giving Jack Mayes the opportunity to burst through a gap and ride the tackle to score his second of the day. Ewan’s conversion extended Brentwood’s lead to 21-3.

The game being played at quite a ferocious pace (probably in an attempt to keep warm…) but Brentwood’s defence was solid and succeeded in keeping Wanstead at bay whilst also mostly playing in the right areas of the field; the possession and territory paying dividends three minutes before half time when Brentwood added their 4th and bonus point try.

A Brentwood attack had faltered just a couple of metres shy of Wanstead’s tryline giving Wanstead a difficult defensive scrum, but Brentwood’s pack did well, putting the squeeze on and forcing a knock on to instead give them a 5 metre attacking scrum. The ball was out quickly to Eamon Tiernan who crashed up, followed up with another crash from George Bassenger before being flung out quickly to Tom Fahy who threw the dummy and burst past a wrong-footed defender to go over for the try. Ewan May added his 4th conversion, 28-3 and half time soon after.

I always admire Si Whaley’s unrelenting half time optimism that the second half won’t become stressful despite how many times we’ve all witnessed the contrary…we even scored the try before half time! Unfortunately, it was once again misplaced optimism, Wanstead scoring their first try with ten minutes of the second half gone having made their way up the pitch through some quick, wide play and various phases in the 22, 28-10.

A frustrating amount of knock-ons were now creeping into Brentwood’s game whilst Wanstead looked to be much more into their attacking groove however, Brentwood defended well from a scrum just inside Wanstead’s half and managed to nab the ball back via Jack Mayes when a pass hit the floor. James Vogel took the ball on well from a pop pass before Brentwood went blind via Alfie Adams to Tom Fahy who made some metres up the wing, the ball then coming back in field to Jack Mayes who, in his pinballing style of running, managed to bounce between a couple of tackles and under another to steam through into open field and, upon getting towards the tryline, slowed as if almost daring someone to try and stop him before crashing through the tackle and over for his hattrick. Will Attridge now on for a limping Ewan added the extras, 35-10.

Naively, I hoped that would be the end of Wanstead’s resurgence but of course it wasn’t, and the next 25 minutes got progressively more uncomfortable for Brentwood. Wanstead looked to have changed their game plan up a bit and were now getting round Brentwood’s defence on the wide seemingly quite easily and also moving the ball away from contact well with some neat offloads out of the tackle. Coupled with some silly mistakes from Brentwood which had been mostly avoided in the first half and a mounting penalty count, Wanstead slowly eroded the deficit scoring 3 further converted tries and suddenly with 7 minutes to go, the score was 35-29 and stress levels were peaking.

Brentwood remained on the back foot and with time nearly up found themselves on the wrong end of two consecutive penalty decisions which took them from the relative safety of defending just outside Wanstead’s 22 to giving Wanstead a last roll of the dice to try and nick the game with a lineout in the Brentwood 22. The ball went into the lineout, Brentwood’s long-suffering and frozen supporters collectively held their breath and then…huge relief, captain George Bassenger soaring like a salmon into the air, intercepting the ball at the front and landing safely with it back on Brentwood’s side, one more ruck required before Kieran Ballinger could boot the ball into touch and give Brentwood the narrow win.

For Brentwood, a bonus point win in freezing conditions is not something to complain about, especially after last week but again, this was the old cliché tale of two halves. For all that the first half was a pleasing display of patience and accuracy, the second half still remains on the list of things to be improved upon…

Brentwood have now moved back into 4th in the table, three points behind Harlow in third. Next week they make the short journey to take on 7th placed Chelmsford who continue to have a mixed bag of results featuring some big wins but also heavy losses. In the home fixture Brentwood ran out narrow winners having come from behind in a game that ended with 13 players on the field for both teams and yet more soaring stress levels off of it…at least it’s never dull!