A beautiful day for rugby, the first half Billericay would have to contend with playing into the wind and sun. Early exchanges showed both teams were up for a tough game and Canvey struck first after stretching the Billericay defence with a well worked try (and conversion).

Billericay responded straight away after putting pressure on the kick off, winning a scrum penalty and then going to the corner for the lineout resulting in at catch and drive try, placed down by Ali Cameron to make the score 7-5.

The see saw action continued with Canvey playing smart using the wind to keep Billericay pinned back in their own half. The pressure again resulted in a stretched Billericay defence and another converted try for Canvey to extend their lead to 14-5.

Shortly before half time Billericay had to make an injury replacement with young Corben Meredith coming into the second row for his 1st XV debut. His hard running added some impetus and eventually Billericay were able to strike back working the blind side with Austin Hogben going over in the corner and making it 14-10.

With the game on edge, Canvey started to take control and show how good of a team they are. With an unconverted try at the stroke of half time taking the score to 19-10.

The second half started as the first half finished with Canvey comfortably controlling the game despite now playing into the wind. They couldn’t however convert it into points keeping Billericay in the match.

A yellow card for Canvey after a high tackle seemed to give them the extra motivation and finally they were able to break a resilient Billericay defence to stretch their lead to 16 points with about 20 minutes to go.

Canvey continued with their advantage but after some huge defensive sets and a bit of luck with Canvey dropping the ball over the line, the boys in Black and Gold sprung to life with 10 minutes to go.

After finding themselves deep into the Canvey 22, Billericay thought they had initially scored through captain Matt Clow however the ref felt in wasn’t grounded. Moments later however Sam Fisher was able to burst through and score to the upset of the Canvey players as their lead was cut to 26-15

Off the following kick off, old reliable Lee Barry took it well and we began to take it right back to them. After spinning it wide, a kick through and some confusion by the Canvey back 3, meant that Sam Fisher’s kick chase was rewarded with another try within only a few minutes of each other and with Spencer Johnson adding the extras from the tee.

Billericay were the team in control as Canvey began to lose their composure with a couple of minutes on the clock and only one try in it.

The kick off was again ran back at Canvey as young Corben was released with a big run right down the middle taking the front foot.

With almost a sense of inevitability, Billericay marched right up the pitch playing good phased rugby and as full time came they went over in the corner with Sam Phillips taking the honours and Spencer kicking the conversion to make the final score 26-29 much to the delight of the Billericay players and travelling supporters.

The victory sees Billericay finish the first month of the season undefeated and second in the table as we enter a rest week before the big double header on October 12th!