Home Page Haverhill News

Friendly: Braintree 0 Haverhill 56. Match report.

A sizeable Haverhill support travelled to Braintree to cheer on the town’s side and was in no way disappointed.

With 15 on the park and nine on the sideline, the future is looking brighter for next season in Suffolk Merit League Division One and running town teams out of the Castle Fields site.

A good measure of how a game is going to progress is in the forward play in the set piece and open play. Within two minutes of the start, Haverhill won the first scrum against the head, demolishing the Braintree pack, which never once managed to hold the dominant Haverhill scrum.

Too often in the season, great forward work has not been matched in the three-quarter line, but this was not the case this day.

With rolling substitutes, it is difficult to name particular combinations, but Gavin Hope, Jake Plumridge, Stewart Newman, Simon Potter, Mike Woods and Joe Brown produced some awesome work in the back line, with Brodie Patrick, Ricky Smith and Brad Gibson producing a masterclass in attack and defence on the wing and full back position.

Haverhill were attacking from the off, and the impressive Chris Flannery at number eight quickly punched holes into the defence.

On ten minutes, a lovely break from Flannery afforded a perfectly timed pass to Plumridge whose skilful layoff to Potter saw Potter over the line, only to be called back as the referee had interfered with a Braintree defensive player.

It was not until 20 minutes in that the deadlock was broken, with Flannery crossing the whitewash after huge sustained Haverhill pressure. The Plumridge conversion was just wide.

Braintree attacked from the restart and their inside centre had Woods to pass for a quick reply, but a huge tackle from Joe Brown tracking back stopped the attack dead. Potter ripped the ball to turn over possession and Haverhill were in the Braintree half in seconds.

Braintree returned to the Haverhill 22, but Haverhill turned over the scrum again. There then flowed a passage of play right from the top drawer.

Hope threw a 20-metre miss-pass to Potter at inside centre. Joe Brown received and laid off to Woods who passed to Patrick on the wing. A full 50 metres was covered by Patrick where the following Woods received the ball and then laid off to Joe Brown, who crossed the line for 0-10 on 25 minutes.

A change of players saw the young team members on the park for the first time in the game, with Nathan Craig and Harry Marsh soon in the mix.

Haverhill continued to attack at will, with the lithe Paul Bergin ever in the play. His 50 metre break came to nothing as the pass was deemed forward, but it was not long before Marsh’s continuing dominance in the line-out on five metres allowed for the catch and drive where Bergin peeled and scored on 31 minutes for Plumridge to convert for 17-0.

Plumridge was immediately back in the game with a 70-metre run and score in the corner for 23-0 on 33 minutes.

Ben Jackson, not to be outdone on the running, put in two huge runs of 20 and 40 metres to have the Braintree defence spinning. Martin Ransome in support continued the drive for Bergin, Woods, Andy Chatto and then new man Newman to cross the line for an unconverted try and 27-0 on the whistle.

From the restart Haverhill were again in the mix. Another miss-pass found Newman, who showed great skills in timing to lay the ball off to Simon Lester, who crossed the line for 32-0 on 43 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Lester returned the favour after a 50-metre run back into the Braintree 22 to release Newman into the corner and under the posts for a converted try.

By now, the support was noticing the sympathy vote with the referee who allowed Haverhill nothing, but this did not help due to the Haverhill dominance.

Two great plays from Craig and Marsh saw the youngsters in the mix, ripping the ball from the Braintree player and turning the advantage back to Haverhill.

Ricky Brown, playing a great game in the back row, caught lineout ball on the Haverhill 22 and laid the ball off to Hope. Plumridge passed to Newman and a great run and lay off to Smith saw the winger cross the line for 44-0 on 60 minutes.

On 65 minutes, Marsh ripped ball from Braintree to release Flannery, who crashes over the line for a converted try.

Haverhill had a silly five minutes, where a Lester try was not given as he tried to get closer to the posts, and then a Flannery/Plumridge/Potter combination managed to miss a certain try, much to the enjoyment of the travelling support.

In the final minutes an Adrian Cooper drive punched a hole in the by now punch-drunk Braintree defence. This allowed Flannery to gather and pass to Plumridge for the final score of the game.

This was not a bad Braintree side, it was just that they met an extremely efficient and ruthless Haverhill outfit who were not taking prisoners and who were determined not to allow their line to be breached.

Haverhill Rugby Club celebrates the season at the club on Saturday, April 23 from 4pm. Come and meet players and supporters and enjoy the fun.