CHELMSFORD'S impressive campaign continued with a deserved victory over previously fourth placed Saffron Walden.
The visitors can claim to be the only side this season to have won against the league leaders, North Walsham, so Chelmsford knew they would be in for a hard-fought game, and this certainly proved to be the case.
Following the recent bad weather, this was the first competitive rugby at Coronation Park for three weeks and whilst conditions were very poor, with thick mud and standing water in some parts, both sides tried to play with a lot of width and move the ball around as much as possible.
However, the foundation of the win was down to the display of the Chelmsford forwards, in particular the back row of Jack Venn, Josh Clarke and Paul Redford, who were outstanding.
Time and again they drove into the opposition forwards with some strong carries and put the tackles in when it counted.
Chelmsford's forward pack may be one of the lightest in the league, but they certainly made their presence felt.
There was a series of early penalty exchanges and the visitors had the chance to take the lead when Chelmsford were penalised for being offside, but the kick was unsuccessful.
Simon Hoult then had a difficult chance to put the home side in the lead with a 45 metre penalty that fell just short of the upright.
After seven minutes Walden took the lead when Chelmsford were penalised for being off their feet in a ruck.
Playing down the slope in the first half and with a crosswind, Hoult started to give Chelmsford some territorial advantage, but it was not until 20 minutes that the home side was able to put concerted pressure on Walden's line.
From a penalty Hoult drilled the ball deep into the visitors half and from the resultant catch and drive the ball was held up over the line. From the scrum, scrum half Ben Bayley went blind and right wing Tatenda Gurure was able to score an unconverted try in the corner to take Chelmsford into a 5–3 lead.
Just before half time, Chelmsford were awarded a penalty for the visitors being offside in front of the posts. Instead of taking the three points on offer, Paul Redford took a quick tap and was held up over the line, however, from the scrum, Hoult threw out a long pass and with full back Nick Hankin coming into the line at speed, he went over to score a well worked try which Hoult converted to take the score to 12 – 3 at half time.
Saffron Walden's tactics for the second half were for their fly half to kick deep into Chelmsford's half, however, Chelmsford started brightly, but were then penalised and this gave Saffron Walden some impetus, from which they enjoyed their best spell of the game and they started to put pressure on Chelmsford's line.
Credit must be given to Chelmsford's defence which held firm and with flanker Josh Clarke breaking away from his own line and making significant ground into the visitors half, momentum went with the home side and the Chelmsford's forwards began to dominate the latter stages of the game when they effectively took on the visitors pack and played some good driving rugby to keep them at bay. Indeed they were unlucky not to score on several occasions when they were camped in the Saffron Walden 22.
A further Hoult penalty five minutes from the end effectively sealed the game for the hosts to take them into a 15 – 3 lead which they held to the final whistle. This result cements Chelmsford's third position in the table and Chelmsford can be pleased that they denied Saffron Walden a losing bonus point and kept their line intact.
Coach Eddie Gooby said after the game, "This was a very pleasing result for us, we needed to follow up last week's big comeback win with a solid performance against a team that we always have tough encounters with."
This coming Saturday will see Chelmsford take on Portsmouth in the rearranged London Intermediate Cup quarter final, kick off is at 2pm.
