This week Brentwood made their final and furthest away trip of the season to a beautifully sunny Holt. Holt have occupied 10th place for the majority of the season but, as you’re all probably bored of me saying by now, this league is incredibly competitive, and with Holt having given Brentwood a stern test at King George’s in November the consensus was that this was likely to be another close one…

The opening ten minutes were a mixed bag for both teams, Brentwood having a couple of good opportunities ended by forward passes, Holt suffering similar frustrations with unforced knock-ons in key moments. It was Brentwood though who were first to seize the initiative; a Holt kick towards Brentwood’s 22 allowing Ewan May to spy some space down the left side of the pitch, drawing a defender before setting Alex Roberts off who took play up to halfway, offloading the ball in the tackle to Alex Williams. The second Alex in the attack carried on past the ten-metre line, drawing another man and finding Eamon Tiernan in support on his left, Eamon with the pace and power to evade the cover and go over for the try from a clinical and well executed counter, Ewan May added the extras, 0-7.

The try spurred Brentwood on and another good attack from the restart resulted in a yellow card for Holt for a deliberate knock on and three points off the tee from Ewan May from the penalty, 0-10.

Five minutes later, Brentwood added their second when a loose ball was regathered by Tom Walker in Brentwood’s half, and he found Ewan May with a bit of open field ahead of him. Ewan sliced straight through before finding Jack Richards on the wing who stepped through two tackle attempts to take play deep into Holt’s 22; Matt Whaley on the inside in support to pop the ball off to Will McArthur who took the ball to ground and recycled. Brentwood were quick to reset, Jack Richards stepping in at scrum half and getting the ball to Tom Walker where it was shipped through the hands of Eamon Tiernan and Louis Payne, Brentwood with a big overlap which Alex Williams finished off for another well taken try. Ewan May added another two, 0-17.

Brentwood’s injury misfortunes then reared their head once more, Matt Whaley limping off with another likely season ender and, in a squad of 18 that already contained 7 players who would consider their preferred position to be in the front row, reducing Brentwood’s lineout options to just the one jumper…

In the following 15 minutes or so, Holt swung the momentum very much back in their favour, Ewan May just getting back to dot the ball down first after a Holt kick and chase, Jack Richards pulling out a try-saving tackle and a duo of Alexes forcing a knock-on just shy of the line as Brentwood had to defend, defend and defend. Having not exited their own half for the period, it felt inevitable that Holt would score and I can only assume that in order to not disappoint me, Brentwood’s defensive effort held out until very nearly half time before Holt scored from a well worked wide move off of an attacking lineout, 5-17. As an additional bonus, there was just enough time left for Aston Bevans-Royston to get a yellow card for a high tackle and with that, half time.

14-man Brentwood came out firing into the second half, a strong bust into the midfield by Louis Payne from the restart pulling Holt’s defence narrow to give Alex Roberts room to deliver one for the highlights reel, firstly managing to take the slightly wayward pass one handed before putting in a fabulous kick down the touchline from Brentwood’s 10 metre line which was weighted perfectly to bounce end over end and land just shy of Holt’s try line, causing all sorts of defensive issues as Alex also completed the follow up tackle. With Brentwood pouring forwards Eamon Tiernan nabbed a panicked pass to give Brentwood back possession and when Holt infringed at the ruck two phases later, Kieran Ballinger was alert to the opportunity, tapping the penalty quickly and getting over for Brentwood’s third of the day, Ewan May added the conversion, 5-24.

With Holt looking to keep the ball in hand and the game starting to break up a bit, Brentwood then added a second yellow card to their tally for Louis Payne for a cynical penalty after a line break. With Brentwood now reduced to 13 men, Holt wasted no time in using the numerical advantage, scoring through their backs from the penalty lineout, 10-24.

Brentwood then regained a man but were still down to 14, Holt adding another to reduce the deficit further, their tactics of running just about everything from everywhere leaving Brentwood chasing shadows at times and pulling it back to a one score game after a long range effort from their own 22, 17-24 and here we go again…

There was, however, one big advantage to Brentwood’s injury-necessitated 7 front row forwards…Brentwood’s strongest scrummaging ability of the season! It was an ascendancy that started to pay dividends when a Brentwood attack had ended in a knock-on but the pack then won a penalty in the ensuing scrum which Brentwood sensibly elected to kick via the boot of Ewan May to get back on the scoreboard, 17-27.
Five minutes later, after a big line break from Tom Walker saw Brentwood awarded a penalty 5 metres out, Brentwood went to the scrum again, another strong effort giving Brentwood the luxury of penalty advantage, Eamon Tiernan just stopped short before Lewis Pratley barged over. Ewan May added another conversion, 17-34.

Brentwood though just couldn’t quite shake Holt from their tail, and it only took two minutes for them to reduce the breathing space once again as they again shifted the ball quickly from inside their own half to leave Brentwood clutching at thin air, 24-34.

It was all starting to get a bit chaotic, a penalty straight after the restart allowing Ewan May to add another three for Brentwood, 24-37, before Brentwood then conceded a penalty themselves from the restart, Holt putting the ball in the corner and scoring immediately after the lineout when Brentwood found themselves completely outnumbered on the blindside, 29-37.

The clock, however, was in Brentwood’s favour and they finally secured the win less than two minutes later. A clearing kick from the restart went to Ewan May who had space to run it straight back to Holt’s 22, a couple more busts from Jack Mayes. Alex Williams and Aston Bevans-Royston took it on further before Eamon Tiernan rounded off a strong personal performance, spotting a bit of unguarded space down the side of the ruck and accelerating determinedly through to dot down for Brentwood’s fifth. Ewan May completed a 100% day off the tee, 29-44.
For Brentwood, in the end this was a good win against a Holt team who played some really excellent attacking rugby and caused Brentwood’s defence a lot of problems and yet more stress for their long-suffering support - as Sue King summarised succinctly at fulltime “It’s been a nice weekend, a few drinks, a bit of shopping…and then there’s this…”. Holt’s league status for next season remains unclear but hopefully we’ll get to make the trip and appreciate their kind hospitality again next season.

Brentwood now have two home games remaining in the league season in their quest to secure what would be a deserved third place finish and an improvement on the solidly fifth of the last couple of seasons. Next up is 8th placed Rochford, Brentwood winning the away fixture in December in the eye of Storm Darragh. Since then, Rochford have won 4 and lost 4 with significant wins over both Wanstead and Harlow and will be another stern test for Brentwood.