Romford’s faithful travelled in hope to Epping on a beautiful spring day to play “the Club” at their fine new facilities. We knew that the Club are a much better team than their League position suggests, as we had only beaten them at home in the autumn as a result of their indiscipline. Sadly, indiscipline was once again the downfall of the men in red and white. No fewer than five cards were shown, two reds and three yellows.

Park started off playing into a strong wind. The Club scored early on, their heavy units in the pack punching holes in the Park defence, and following up hard. Park could make no headway kicking against the wind, and we were really only kept in the game by the high penalty count in our favour.

Ten yards at a time, Park made their way into the wind, accompanied by the comforting music of the referee’s whistle. Our backs then showed some good hands, passing the ball all along the line for Aff Alukoga to cross in the corner. This drew the scores level at 5-5, and the Club were wasting the advantage of the wind.

The Club’s indiscipline continued, continually gobbing the ref and throwing several cheap ones. Not always accurately - two consecutive punches aimed at a Park player on the ground hit the pitch, doing little damage, though the groundsman winced. The referee’s patience ran out, and two yellow cards were shown. The Club were taken back ten yards three times in succession for unnecessary commentary on the same offence. Finally, after several offences near the line, Park were awarded a penalty try. So the score at half time was 5-12.

The Club’s poor discipline was the main reason for this. But Park deserve credit for keeping their heads when provoked, and for some excellent work by the pack in the set pieces. At the line out, Sam Wakeley made sure that the penalties counted, throwing straight every time, despite the strong wind. The Grey Wolf Ben Wrigg was lifted well, and provided good clean ball to Professor Ryan Blinkhorn at 9. And the Club never found a legal answer to Park’s well organized rolling maul. This did not prevent them trying several illegal means, all greeted by the whistle.

Park made good use of the wind in the second half. Matt Taylor, playing with the beard, moustache and bravado of a Mexican villain, had an excellent game, putting his left boot to the ball to good effect. He soon put a penalty over to extend Park’s lead to 5-15. The backs then engineered a nice looking try, making good use of an overlap to put Matt over in the corner. He converted splendidly from the touch line, using the wind to drag the ball over the H.

The Club were then shown two red cards, one for a high tackle and another after a fight. This effectively ended the game as a contest. Park were awarded a second penalty try when the Club collapsed a rolling maul on their line. Matt Taylor then scored a second try to put Park in the driving seat at 5-36.

Park then took their foot off the gas, and managed to give a twelve man Club two interception tries before the end. So the game ended at 15-36. The Club are a better side than this score suggests, with some big units in the pack and fluent hands in the backs – if only they can improve their discipline.

Coach Pete O’Brien was sporting some very cool mirror shades against the sun. If anybody has an old violin case at home, Pete needs it to complete his mafia hit man look. He maintained, with a straight face, that penalty tries are credited to the coaches. Now, I have never heard this before, but I am not about to disagree with Pete about penalties – a subject where we all know that he has a good deal of personal experience.

Photos can be found here https://www.eppingucrfc.com/photos/eucrfc-15vs-romford-36-march-2022-1012427.html