The last game of an eight month long season will not go down in the annals of Brentwood's history.

Things started well enough for them with Shaw taking a quick tap penalty 12 metres out and powering his way through after four minutes to score his seventh try in eight appearances this season.

Following a high tackle in Chelmsford's first approach to the Brentwood line the home side's inside centre went through to score easily.

A good conversion from wide out by their right winger gave them the lead after ten minutes.

Chelmsford continued to show their willingness to run the ball at the Brentwood defence and they caught it flatfooted when they took a tap penalty in midfield and moved the ball quickly to their winger who scored out on the right.

In the early stages Brentwood's pack had been able to drive the home side back in the set scrums.

Chelmsford quickly resorted to a countering tactic of wheeling the scrum on the Brentwood ball which resulted in Brentwood being unable to make any effective advantage on their own hall.

This made for untidy scrummaging and displays of frustration throughout the rest of the game.

Stephens reduced the arrears with a penalty from in front of the posts after half an hour.

Chelmsford responded immediately when their flanker beat Williams to take the restart ball and set thing sin motion for another try down their right wing.

Brentwood generally had the better of the lineout play where they were able to secure their own lineout ball and upset the effectiveness of the home side's ball on a number of occasions.

With this advantage they mounted threats to the line but without success and half-time was reached with the score at 17-8.

The overall quality of play in the second half did not improve and the game developed even more in a niggling untidy affair interrupted frequently by the referee's whistle as players showed their frustrations as activities in the rucks and mauls relative to their own perceived interpretations of the laws of the game.

Most of the half was played close to the centre line although any threat to the try lines came from Brentwood.

Chelmsford were forced to defend a series of scrums just short of the line and were only able to relieve the situation by kicking.

Little was seen of the effectiveness of their three-quarters to match that which they had shown in the first half.

With five minutes remaining, Brentwood eventually got the reward for the slight advantage that they had held in the second half.

Chelmsford were caught offside following a lineout ten metres out.

From the resulting tap penalty Kirby was held just short of the line but was still able to release the ball to McConnell who drove over.

It was a disappointing result for Brentwood who set out to prove their seniority only to lose out for the second time this season to their local rivals who will be joining them in London and SE 2 North next season.

Brentwood: Coombes, Webster, McConnell, Stephens (White 60), Harding, Twidale, Bowden, Kirby, Brook, Lee, Killington (Brindle 60), Williams, Metcalfe, Bell and Shaw.

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