East London

East London 1st XV, Were at home to Dagenham this week. And with a strong squad were in positive mood before Kickoff.
The home side put themselves under pressure from the start, by reacting poorly to the KO. But the solid work that has been done in training on defence, showed its worth. Good work around the fringes saw East London slowly work their way up field. The first half was a battle of two very strong defences, with break & counter break, being brought to a halt.
The home side dominated in the line out, with some impressive take & drives, from both Mike Groombridge & Rich Gregory. And the tight 5 never took a backward step in the scrum. The front row of Pearmain, Masters & Clarke, were on top of their opposite number from start to finish.
The deadlock was finally broken when the visitors were awarded a penalty mid way through the half. 0-3. The home side worked hard from the restart. Which saw them camped in the opposition 2. For a considerable time. But despite the hard running lines of The East London backs notably Little on the wing & Brown from fullback., the visitors defence held firm. From a ruck on the 22 Matt Langley fed the ball to Gonse who calmly slotted a drop goal. 3-3.
The last quarter of the half became a very heated affair with both sides receiving a yellow card, just before the whistle blew for the end of the half.
The 2nd half continued in the same vein with East London dominating the set piece & the visitors capitalising on any turnovers. Two further penalties saw the home side increase their lead to 9-3. Dagenham then had a sustained spell of pressure which saw them camped in the East London 22 but the defence held firm with the back row of Parrott, Narramore & Alexander putting their bodies on the line time & again. From a Dagenham scrum East London again drove them off the ball, but were adjudged by the referee, to have tackled the player without the ball. Dagenham took the tap & went quickly with their centre going over for the first try of the game. With the conversion this gave the visitors the lead 9-10. From the restart the visitors again put pressure on the home defence, & in the last minute of the game again went over for a second try, which was also converted 9-17. The next breakdown saw the whistle blown for full time.
Although East London showed huge character, they were again robbed of any points in the dying minutes of a game.