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Rugby club's rebuilding work continues

By Jim Morgan at Castle Fields on Tuesday, 15th March 2011.

FRIENDLY: Haverhill 26 Braintree 12. Match report.

In perfect rugby playing and watching weather, Haverhill hosted a mixture of Braintree veterans and youngsters in a friendly match at Castle Fields.

With both sides adopting a rolling substitute system, it was a chance for Haverhill to give some of their youngsters a run out for the first time too.

For a team that, when they turned up, could live in Eastern Counties I, it was of no surprise that Haverhill were in the Braintree half from the off.

Some good hands in the backs again were spoiled at the final moments with spilled ball. A certain try was missed on four minutes through handling and there were six occasions when handling robbed Haverhill of crossing the whitewash during the match.

With players trying some new positions, Mike Woods produced a perfect kick forward on ten minutes. The pressure on the Braintree defence caused them to hold on to the ball and Ewens kicked to five metres from the resultant penalty.

The catching skills of Chris Flannery came to the fore again, and a lovely catch and a drive move allowed the line to be crossed right in the corner for a Flannery score. This was superbly converted by Ewens from 40 metres, allowing the seven points on the scoreboard.

Flannery was back in the mix immediately with a 30-metre breakout from the restart, but again the handling after the pass let the side down.

From the resultant scrum, Haverhill won the ball against the head and a lovely move of six passes, and a jinking run and dummy by Chris 'Eggy' Boyle saw the centre cross for his first of three tries, duly converted by Ewens.

Haverhill were looking so tight that the call went out to keep the score to zero points, but Braintree had other ideas and on 33 minutes, a missed tackle on the 22m line allowed the Braintree full back the speed to crash through the defence for a converted try.

The second half was more of the same with Ben Jones, Brodie Patrick, Boyle and Adam French all coming close with some great penetrative runs. An excited buzz ran through the crowd with the inclusion on ten minutes of Steve Power, but we should not have bothered.

On 55 minutes, Boyle again crossed the line, with Ewens drifting the conversion beautifully on the wind for the extra points and 21-7.

Braintree came back for the only time in the second half and on 60 minutes, crossed the line for 21-12.

With five minutes remaining, sustained Haverhill pressure saw Boyle cross the line for the third and final time. The conversion was missed.

This was a solid performance from Haverhill and there is much to be happy with here. However, work on the handling is required, but this will come with the confidence that the ball will come out to the backs when playing at a lower level of competition.

Haverhill play Sawston away next week, kick-off 2.30pm.

Haverhill Online News

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