Old Cooperians had called off their last match scheduled against Billericay in November, and Billericay were none too impressed when they were advised on Friday night that Old Coops again wanted to cancel.

As it turned out, on Saturday, Old Coops turned up at Willowbrook with 13 players.

However they did not have a front row and so all scrums were uncontested.

This made things less interesting for Billericay as their scrummaging is one of their strong points.

The visitors elected to kick off downhill and throughout the game Billericay had most of the possession and ground.

Within 10 minutes Billericay had scored through Robin Taylor who now seems to have got himself a regular spot in the first team.

Fly half John Steven converted this and the home team continued to rack up the points on a regular basis.

From an intercepted pass, scrum half Glenn Smith scored a fine individual try, then Steven scored a try of his own, putting it between the posts to make the conversion easier for himself.

This try came from a line out won by Roger Moore who had a good game at number 8.

Centre Adam Hudson had to leave the pitch with an injury, full back Andy Collings stepped in to fill the gap, and David Wicks was brought on at full back.

In the second half, David Hyett came on for prop Tony Bond.

Collings scored a try from a good pass from Steven which was duly converted, and then flanker John Bailey got on the scoresheet with a try.

Robin Taylor scored two further tries, and David Wicks and then Mark Yates also scored, all three of the aforementioned having been promoted from the second team.

Yates had an excellent game, working hard in the loose and devastating the Old Coops defence.

Hyett also had a good game and scored the final try of the match.

Despite the scoreline Billericay were somewhat uninspiring and there will need to be a general pulling up of socks when they travel to play Woodbridge this Saturday.

These sides have already met this season, in November, and Billericay won by just one point.

The second and third teams will be at home to Rochford third team and Old Palmerians respectively (kick-offs 2.15pm).

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.