Sunshine greeted the boys for the first match of the season. Given that both
Chingford and Finchley wanted to give as many players ‘game time’ as
possible the match was played in four quarters. From the off Chingford
attacked Finchley and soon had a scrum within their 22. The scrum was lost,
Finchley got the ball out to their centre who evaded many tackles to score
in the corner. Chingford rallied and at 8 minutes Patrick fielded a ball by
the line, gained good ground before getting the ball to Matt Lumb who made
it to half way. The ball was quickly recycled by Max who outstripped the
defence to score. The first quarter was brought to an end after a good
tackle by Chingford turned the ball over and Max ran out wide to score.
Ching 10 - Finchley 5. With less than 2 minutes of the play in the 2nd
quarter, Chingford got the ball near the line. From the ruck new boy Ellis
picked up and dived over. The remainder of the half was shared between both
teams with particularly strong work put in by Sam Fitzgerald. At 11 minutes
Chingford got the ball to Ben who was in space. He beat the player on the
outside, then managed to evade some desperate tackles to dot down under the
posts. Reece converted to secure a 22-5 lead. The first 5 minutes of the 3rd
quarter belonged to Finchley with their centres scoring 3 trys at 1, 3 and 5
minutes on both sides of the pitch. This meant they now led by 2 points !
Following a tough under the posts talk by Sam Fitzgerald, the boys tightened
up their defence and concentrated on getting the lead back. At 10 mins
Chingford won a scrum at half-way, got the ball out quickly to their backs
and Ben then outstripped the defence to score under the posts to regain the
lead at 29-24. The 4th quarter started with Finchley making great ground on
the blind for their forward to cross the line, but he failed to touch down
before going out of play. This had the effect of invigorating Chingford who
scored 2 great trys from their backs – the first to Ben who used his pace,
the second one to Matt Marie who took the ball out wide, cut inside and
touched down without a hand being laid on him. Sam Robbens then scored a
great try following a pickup from the base of the scrum and running
unchallenged down the blind. The game ended with a good passing move which
allowed Ellis to get his second try.
Scorers –  Trys- Ben Maru (3), Max Rabey (2), Ellis Flattery (2), Matt
Marie, Sam Robbens, Conversions – Reece Daltrey (3)

Sam Fitzgerald, Adam Wakeling, Robbie Cook, Peter Young, Jordan Hillier,
Daniel Bingham, James Willis, Max Rabey (c), Sam Robbens, Reece Daltrey,
Patrick Love, Matt Lumb Ben Maru, Patrick Love , Matt Marie , Will
McGillivray, Jack Johnson, Ellis Flattery, Kobi Scarlett, Ethan, Danny,