The Juggernaut motors into the Final

Romford 29 v 24 Westcliff

Romford hosted good friends Westcliff in the Semi Final of the Essex County Cup - having already played them in the league at the start of the season and suffered a heavy defeat it was going to be a very hard physical encounter, with Romford kicking off down the slope with the wind behind them the hit Westcliff with everything in the early stages, from a Westcliff lineout they were put under so much pressure that the scrum half was tackled behind his own line therefore rewarding Romford with an early scrum on the visitors 5m line, from this the ball was won and fed down the line to the lightening Lamar Douglas to open the scoring in the corner, with their tails up Romford then made inroads into the Westcliff half again and from more good work by the pack set off the backs once again and Douglas claimed his second this time scoring closer to the posts ( conv Rian Horsman ) - Westcliff then took the game to Romford with some great rucking and worked their way upfield and from a resulting penalty near Romfords line the forwards drove over to open their account ( conv scored ) , both sides never gave an inch and some crunching tackles were made by both sides and they tried to gain the upper hand - with the play mostly in the middle of the park Westcliff won a penalty in the last play of the half but unfortunately it was pushed wide as Romford ended the half 12-5 up
The second half was going to be twice as physical as the first with Romford playing up the slope into the wind with only a slight lead - Westcliff came out all guns blazing and after soem good counting rucking levelled the scores with a try in the corner - Romford then went on the attack again as winger Richard Avbunudje rode a few tackles down the touch line to and score in the corner to regain the lead, with the game being played end to end it was Westcliffs turn to attack and after good work from their forwards again they too scored in the corner to level up at 17-17, in what was a ding dong of a battle each side continued to put in some crunching tackles knocking their opponents back - Romford then from inside their own half set off upfield using their lightening quick backs and fullback Seyi Ajeigbe outpaced the entire Westcliff back line to score under the posts ( conv Hormsan ) and regain the lead - as with the way the match was panning out Westcliff hit straight back at Romford and through the forwards charged down field and scored again ( conv scored ) to once again level the scores at 24-24 with only 5 minutes - both sides were still trying to play open free flowing rugby to their credit and just as it seemed to be going into extra time from a scrum inside the Romford half the ball was once again won by the forwards and set off down the back line to the powerful Avbunudje to run over 3 defenders and outpace the rest and score in the corner with the last play of the game and for Romford to scrap through an intense and thrilling game of Rugby played by both sets of boys which were a privilege to both clubs

Lamar Douglas 2
Richard Avbunudje 2
Seyi Ajeigbe

Conv - Rian Horsman 2

Team - Stevens, Duffy, Rawlings, Madden, Piercy, Milne, Petrie, Davison, Fox, Horsman, Dew, Ford, Douglas, Avbunudje, Ageigbe, Attridge, Brromfield, Chaplin, Walters, Roberts, Tighe, Fahy, Robinson, James, Stalabrass, Mclellan, Medaglia, Donald, Kelly,