Eastern Counties Rugby Union

As part of Eastern Counties 125th Anniversary celebrations Eastern Counties Rugby Union hosted Essex Rugby Union in a friendly fixture at Colchester RFC on Wednesday.

With the conditions being dry cool and with virtually no wind the scene was set for an entertaining evening of Rugby. The player didn’t disappoint, with the early exchanges taking place between the 22m lines with neither side giving a quarter.

The first clean break came from Colchester’s Matt Smith making a fine break, from just outside his own 22m taking play up to the half way line. But a fine tackle by the visitors and immediate support led to the ball being turned over. Unfortunately the counter attack was halted by a knock on leading to the first scum of the game, which Eastern Counties dominated as they did for much of the game allowing No.8 Tom Williams to pick and punch the ball up the right flank, a poor pass leading to a knock on being the only thing that denied right Gary Andrews a clear run to the line.

Matt Smith who was a constant threat at outside centre was the person to break the deadlock showing his speed to make one of many clean breaks to run the ball in from just outside the 22m line for the first try of the game with 10 minutes on the clock which was converted by Matt Hodgson.

Receiving clean and quick ball from a dominant pack fly half Matt Hodgson was able to release his outside backs phase after phase, which whilst their Essex counterparts did well to repel were always on the back foot.

Eastern Counties second try came at the end of the first quarter and as a result of some great driving play down the middle of the park, with blindside flanker Tom Ransom powering over the line, converted by Matt Hodgson.

It wasn’t long before right wing Gary Andrews added a third try benefitting from a sweeping move straight from the restart to score, converted by Matt Hodgson.

Eastern Counties were again on the score sheet just before half time with a try from replacement Will Hodgson crashing over from 5m taking the ball from a quick tap following a penalty awarded to the home team, the successful conversion being taken by fullback Simon Horbeck, the half time score being 28-0 to Eastern Counties.

Following the break Eastern Counties started where they had left off moving the ball quickly to the right flank with the final pass being judged forward. However, at the resulting scrum close to the Essex line, the much more powerful Eastern Counties pack took the ball against the head and drove the visitors pack over the line, with no. 8 Tom Williams flopping on the ball to score.

A period of sustained pressure by the visitors was met with a committed and determined defensive line, however Eastern Counties were adjudged to be offside at the breakdown close to their line and quick tap led to Ben Lloyd catching the Eastern Counties defensive line in a rare display of disunity to score what would turn out to be their only try of the encounter, converted by Jake Brand.

From the restart, Eastern Counties took the ball deep into opposition territory with Tom Williams scoring his second try of the evening, which was converted by Simon Horbeck.
With the visitor’s defence beginning to tire Eastern Counties were able to capitalise and Tom Ransom was again able to break the defence for his second try of the evening, converted by Simon Horbeck.

Essex however rallied following this try repelling numerous phases of play with some fierce tackling, but with Eastern Counties probing and testing the defence all at multiple points it wasn’t long before Eastern Counties were again adding to an already sizeable tally with Will Hodgson scoring again to make a brace of tries.

From the restart the very impressive Matt Smith again showed the opposition a clean pair of heals finding a gap outside his man before feeding right wing Gary Andrews who ran the ball in for his second try wide out on the flank.

Eastern Counties didn’t let their foot off the accelerator at any point during the game and indeed scored in the last play of the game, with the pack underlining their dominance again pushing their opposition over the line from a 5m scrum with Tom Williams again benefiting from the mighty efforts of his tight 5 to score complete a hat trick and the teams’ 10th try, converted by Simon Horbeck.

EC Team: Simon Horbeck (Shelford), Gary Andrews (Bury St Edmunds), Matt Smith (Colchester), Nico Defeo (Cambridge), Nico Defeo (Cambridge), Owain Collard (Cambridge), Matt Hodgson (N. Walsham), Mike Gillick (Cambridge), Sisa Naqisma (Cambridge), Patrick Calvert (Cambridge University), David Langley (Cambridge), Rob Hall (Cambridge University), Red Newberry (Shelford), Tom Ransom (Shelford), Louis Rawlings (Cambridge), Tom Williams (N. Walsham)

Replacements: Jack Haward (Bury St Edmunds), Will Hodgson (North Walsham), Bruce Van Poorvliet (Holt), Tom Jones (Cambridge)

Scorers: Matt Smith 1T, Tom Ransom 2T, Gary Andrews 2T, Will Hodgson 2T, Tom Williams 3T, Matt Hodgson 3C, Simon Horbeck 4C

Manager: David Masdin, Assistant Manager: Shaun Gardner
Coaches: Mark Bolton (Lead), Simon Kidney, Pete Kolakowski
Physio: Steph Dear, Logistics: Andrew Norfolk-Clarke

Eastern Counties Senior XV begin their RFU County Championship Division 1 campaign on the 7th May away to Cheshire, with games away to Lancashire on the 14th May and at home to Yorkshire on the 21st May, the latter being played at Grange Road, Cambridge.