Romford report

With a very high calibre side, Epping Upper Clapton’s 2nd XV looked poised for a decent game on Saturday 21st February.

As usual, the club would start a very young side (with an old head) against a much more ‘experienced’ team. The game started with a textbook start kick from David ‘Player, Coach, Water-boy’ Barker playing in his favoured position of Fly-half. A great chase from the Epping forwards and some serious graft in set pieces put the Epping lads ahead with their first try – Lindsey ‘Top-knot’ Dobbin. 0-5.
Romford soon hit back with a surge over the Epping try line, and with a completed conversion this put the score at 7-5. It looked like this could be a close game.

The Epping lads were not prepared to sit down and fought back with 3 more tries in the first half from Rupert Wood, Dale Stalley and Liam Rodgers respectively. Half time score sat at 7-20. The Epping supporters were intrigued to see what the second half may bring.

The second half started with a bang, a great take and charge from Louis Dix saw the Epping lads in a great position, centre of the park. The likes of Adam ‘Mogli’ Power and Adam ‘I don’t like rugby’ Ayres fought hard against a larger pack in the scrums to ensure that the backs would receive clean ball. This was guaranteed by the scrum half John ‘Dreamboat’ Gunnell.

The second half saw some seriously hard work from both sides but the Epping backs were too much for a tiring Romford side. Three more tries for Dobbin, and one each for Wood and Dale Stalley (converted) put the final score at 7-47.

Special mentions go to Rupert Wood for scoring 2 tries on his debut, Allan Swales for greatly improved line out throwing – creating a solid platform, Matt Sweeney for a ridiculous tackle count and Alfie Reynolds for some great all round play.

Ed