Match Report

East London's side started poorly against a very strong & very different Basildon side from that which they played last term. A combination of poor East London defending & strong running from Basildon's Centre led to two tries for the visitors in the first twenty minutes.

After some stern words from the skipper East London switched on & began to play to their game plan. This resulted in two converted tries for the home side putting East London in front 14-12.

A further unconverted try for each side kept the score board ticking up before the break and the 1st half finished 19-17 to the home team.

In the 2nd half Basildon again drove hard to regain the lead, 19-22 to Basildon. But East London put great pressure on to win a penalty in front of the Basildon posts which was converted to make the score 22 - 22.

Further pressure by East London meant that the last 10 minutes was played entirely in the opposition 22. The pressure was to such intendsity that during this period both teams had a player sin binned and tempers flared!

In the last 5 minutes, an East London scrum resulted in a try in the corner, 27-22 but the conversion was missed.

East London showed great discipline by retaining possession from the Basildon restart and running down vital minutes on the clock, eventually holding out till the end of the game undeterred by the determined Basildon attack.

Final score 27 - 22 to East London