Arriving to beat top of the table Westcliff after half the team played the night before seemed like a big ask.

Due to heavy traffic on the way in there wasn't much time for a big warm up to help stretch out already tired legs but we asked the lads to give Westcliff the hardest game of the season and the boys definitely produced that.

First 10 mins of the game was all Witham showing dominance in offence and defence. Witham scored first after a great defensive scrum allowed the backs to break and Josh Farrell was able to stick it under the posts for the first 5 points. And this was easily converted to give Witham a 7 point lead.

Witham continued to dominate throughout the half with Westcliff not being able to hold on to much ball or being penalised for holding on due to the rucking work of Witham.

Westcliff managed to claw a try back after being held for 30mins making it 5-7 to the away team. But just before the break Westcliff were able to bundle themselves over the line to score again making it 10-7 much to Witham's dismay as they believed the try was held up.

Second half Witham were still sipping water and dreaming of the great start they had. This was soon brought to an end with a breakaway try from Westcliff pushing them further in the lead and also kicking the extra 2 making it 17-7.
Witham came back awake and started to play there dominant rugby again which was starting to rattle Westcliff, this showed in dirty tricks and tomfoolery. Witham tried to keep discipline but sometimes just had to join in the fun. Westcliff brought on fresh legs and scored again and another conversion making it 24-7.
Witham continued to bundle up field and win penalties in the correct areas which got us over the try line only for this to be disallowed due to being held up but momments later a gap appeared allowing our no 10 Max Carter to get over the line. However the angle proved too much for the kicker Micheal Vidler and the extra 2 points were missing taking the score to 24-12.
Last play of the game saw Witham take a snatched ball run 90 metres and put the ball down over the line however this was also disallowed due to the handbags just before getting slightly out of hand meaning the referee had to deal with that instead of watching the try.

Witham went out to give Westcliff the hardest game of their season and did exactly that. One more league game to go for the 2nd XV away to Southend in the coming weeks can they continue to disrupt?

Man of the match : Pete Thompson & Joe Cook

Witham RUFC

Match details

Match date

Kickoff

Competition

Team Sponsors

Login