Eton Manor made to work hard for victory over rivals Brentwood

Manor had the majority of possession, all inside Brentwood’s half, but were unable to unlock Brentwood’s well-organised defence.

Luke Watson then took possession; he looked to go back inside but instead passed to supporting Cameron Dutch out wide.

Faced with three defenders, Dutch threw a massive dummy pass inside, stepped out and raced over in the corner to bag Manor's first try, which he converted himself, to make it 7-0 after 34 minutes.

Tom Christopher of Eton Manor on the ball against Brentwood (Image: Martin Pearl)

Dutch and Callum McKie linked up before the ball was shipped to Aaron Lowe, who ran through a space in the defence to go under the posts and score Manor's second converted try of the match.

Brentwood had the lion's share of possession and territory after that, and it wasn’t long before the pressure finally told.

Although Manor's defence was still holding firm, they were giving away a number of penalties - resulting in them losing a player to the sin bin.

Eventually Brentwood decided to take the points on offer from another Manor infringement. This time their kicker successfully converted the attempt, registering the home side's first points.

Brentwood attacked and after a series of strong forward runs, made use of their man advantage as they crossed the line for what was a seven-point score to make it 14-10.

Jack Sullivan and Jordan McDonald of Eton Manor in action against Brentwood (Image: Martin Pearl)

Manor opted for another scrum, again driving their opponents back towards the try line and as the Brentwood scrum began to break up, the ref awarded a penalty try without hesitation and with less than six minutes to go, Manor now held a commanding 21-10 lead.

Brentwood gave it their all to try and get a losing bonus point, and after kicking a penalty for a lineout close to Manor's line, they won the throw-in and set up a maul.

However, the ref deemed it pulled down illegally by Manor’s Burrell so he awarded Brentwood a penalty try and sent Burrell to the sin bin.

Director of rugby Mark Farrell said: “A stern half-time talk from head coach Connors certainly made a difference as we upped our tempo and physicality in the second half. Brentwood were a difficult side to break down.

“We are a different side to the one that played in 2019-20. So far eight new players have worn our colours in two fixtures and we still have more players returning next week.”