Beccles Bulls 21-14 Maldon

Eastern Counties 1

02/02/02

In their 2nd top-of-the-table confrontation this season both sides took the field with promotion prospects ahead of them , with perhaps the 4th placed visitors needing the game more to keep their hopes alive after falling 1 more defeat behind the League leaders and their hosts the Bulls on Saturday. Maldon play a tight , typically Essex style of rugby and a high scoring match was never on the cards and this was certainly going to be true when the weather on Saturday produced a stiff end-to-end breeze. Bull's skipper Owen Hadridge elected to face the elements at the outset and Beccles prepared to defend anticipating that their visitors would elect to kick for positional advantage at every opportunity. This was certainly the case and the Bulls found themselves cornered into their own 22-meter area for most of the half.

However , they did manage to produce some searing drives into the visitor's territory regardless of the conditions they faced and in fact it was the Bulls who were 1st on the score sheet. A scrum just on the halfway line delivered clean ball to No8 Andy Warnes who broke blindside at pace to outstrip the defending forwards. After trampling the unfortunate defending winger he found himself clean through with only the full back to beat. Will James , the Bulls young right winger, gave him the easiest of options by breaking in field in support and a simple inside pass enabled the promising youngster to canter in from 15 yards out. Puxley was unable to add the extra points into the wind.

The Bulls were obviously extremely happy at this turn of events as they expected to spend the entire half defending , and Maldon certainly made sure of that for the rest of the half. Stout defence by the home side limited the visitor's chances and they in fact cleared their lines on more than 1 occasion when it looked like Maldon would equalise. However , with the visiting fly half locking them deep in their own half it was almost a certainty that eventually Maldon would find a way through and they did after about 30 minutes. After a series of scrums and mauls on the right hand side were held at bay within yards of the try line , Maldon eventually spun the ball across the pitch to enable their robust centre to crash through under the posts. An easy wind assisted conversion was added.

Galvanised by this the visiting side increased their efforts and 10 minutes later a penalty awarded again deep in the Bulls 22-meter area was tapped quickly and a soft try was conceded that again was converted.

Trailing 14 - 5 at half time the Bulls knew they had their work cut out but they to a certain extent expected this given the prevailing conditions.

With the wind at their backs the Bulls adopted similar tactics to their visitors and whenever danger threatened or the opportunity presented itself the halfbacks used the wind to go for territorial advantage. From one such kick a scrummage was awarded to the Bulls 10 yards out. Anticipating another Warnes pick-up Maldon stacked the defence to cover this eventuality and were not disappointed when indeed he did , however , as he absorbed the defenders they failed to make allowances for Will James who astutely arrived in support at pace , calling from depth , that allowed an underarm pop pass to supply the ball. Full of confidence the young winger scorched past the defenders before diving in for a textbook wingers try in the far corner.

Puxley could not close the gap any further with a conversion but he did add 3 points for a penalty awarded against Maldon for killing a ruck when quick ball would have almost certainly meant a try 10 minutes later. Trailing by a solitary point after playing for most of the 2nd half the Bulls had to try and achieve some fluidity but they were constantly disrupted by the desperate , and increasingly niggling Maldon defence. At this stage of the game a series of yellow cards were dished out that at one point saw both sides down to 13 men. It must be said that in fact Maldon were very lucky not to be reduced to 14 men permanently when one of their sin-binned offenders was warned about punching seconds after his return to the field.

Anyway the Bulls kept their cool and none more so than fly half Puxley who slotted a lengthy and crucial penalty to give the Bulls the lead with only minute's left to play. An excellent strike it was still climbing as it crossed the bar and deserved to be the match winner , but the Bulls had more surprises in their armoury.

Within seconds of the restart the Bulls were awarded another penalty just inside their half and with the strong wind in their favour elected to have a try for 3 points with vice-captain Jon Payne stepping up to the mark. His well-struck attempt had the distance but drifted wide agonisingly close. Maldon knew they had to counter attack and they charged back with the clock ticking. After working their way back to the half way line they were awarded a scrummage to the left of the field. A significant strength of the Bulls this season has been their ability to change tactics at any point during the game and this was one such example. Knowing that any penalty against them could cost them the game , but needing possession the Bulls pack went for an 8-man drive with Hooker Lake at the fore. Maldon's large pack were rudely shunted off their own put in with Beccles driving them back and infield for some yards. Flanker Darren Ley needed no prompting when the ball appeared at his feet on the blindside and he picked up and steamed downfield. Despairing Maldon defenders dragged him down from behind but he found Warnes in support and popped the ball infield. Turning inside the defenders the No8 broke through and this time it was left winger Pete Anderson who screamed for the ball and scorched up field to touch down in the far left corner , breaking the visitors travelling supporter's hearts in the process.

This defeat almost certainly kills Maldon's chances of promotion but they are still in a position to help the Bulls promotion prospects if they can pull a shock defeat of one of the other contenders Mersea Island or Stanford-le-Hope who the Bulls face for the 2nd time in the coming weeks. With the Junior Cup Final in 2 weeks time ( Feb 17th ) and the Mersea game rescheduled for this coming weekend the Bulls 'back-to-back' Double winning ambitions are approaching a crucial period.

Andy Warnes.

Beccles Press Officer.