Saturday's re-arranged friendly gave Brentwood the opportunity to avenge an earlier heavy defeat in the league at the hands of Stortford.

They got off to a good start and took the lead after an evenly contested opening eight minutes when they moved the ball wide to the right wing where McMullan took off from inside his own half.

With a combination of pace and two side steps he left the defence stranded and scored under the posts. Stephens converted.

The home side responded by also running the ball wide to their right wing. Inept tackling allowed the winger through from 35 metres. The conversion evened the score.

After Stephens had restored the lead for Brentwood with a penalty they lost their way for a while.

They were prone to losing possession when the ball was outside of the influence of their pack and also kicked it away rather than keeping it in their hands.

Stortford's backs became an increasing threat. A counterattack from just outside their own "22" resulted in the ball being moved quickly out to the right wing and back inside before they broke through the centre to score under the posts after half an hour.

Brentwood were still struggling to move the ball wide until close on half time when from a ruck on the right Bywater released McMullan who again had the pace from his own half of the pitch to make the try line; 15-14 to Brentwood at the break.

The first score of the second half went to Brentwood when through attrition at rucks and driving mauls they were deep inside the Stortford half.

Shaw picked the ball off the back of the scrum and Williams took it on before linking with McMullan who returned it to Shaw to finish off a move in which they had displayed excellent support to each other.

The home side responded immediately when their scrum half broke through the middle from the centreline before their experienced strong running centre took over and scored. The easy conversion put Stortford back in the lead.

Stortford continued to try to move the ball away from the packs where Brentwood were having the better of the spoils. Brentwood managed to contain them and established themselves close to their target try line.

Williams broke free from a scrum only to be denied his try because of "crossing over" with other Brentwood players.

Brook, not for the first time, took the ball against the head at the ensuing scrum and Shaw made no mistake in going through for his second try. Stephens converted.

With less than 10 minutes remaining he followed this up with a successful penalty from 20 metres out.

Sensing defeat Stortford mounted a sustained assault on the Brentwood line.

In injury time Brentwood were forced to defend and infringed several times before the referee awarded a penalty try which reduced Stortford's arrears to just two points.

Although Brentwood's line was not seriously threatened they infringed about 35 metres out which gave the home side the prospect of a win. The kicker missed for the first time in the match which then closed after six minutes of added time.

This was Brentwood's fourth consecutive win and evened the score with a side fourth from top of their own league.

They will be looking to extend this run when they conclude their league campaign this Saturday (March 27) at Old Merchant Taylors.

Brentwood: English, McMullan, McConnell, Miller, Webster, Stephens, Bywater, Kirby Brook, Cano (Lee, 38). Brindle, Williams, Johnson, Metcalfe and Shaw.

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