Playing a brand of open running rugby, the home side scored 10 tries in a display that left head coach Eddie Gooby satisfied: “It’s nice to play some fast attacking rugby, the supporters enjoy it, I enjoy it and most importantly the boys enjoy it.”
The players certainly appeared to be enjoying it as despite playing into a strong head wind the hosts ran in 31 points in the first half and in the process locked up the four-try bonus point.
When asked whether the home side discussed turning down shots at goal into the wind Gooby said: “Well they won the toss, so we had to play into the wind, but to score 31 points against that wind was a good effort.”
Catching Up
The hosts didn’t have it all their own way however, as it was Millwall who got over for the first score of the game courtesy of winger Christopher Prowse with the try being converted by flyhalf Riordan Cooper.
Playing catch up early and into a strong headwind did no damage to East London’s confidence as they stuck to their plan of running the ball and replied quickly via two tries courtesy of Jackson Roach and Sean Cooper.
Roach’s try in particular stands out as it came via a brilliant chip kick over the defensive line by flyhalf Ryan Billinghurst.
With the four tries in the bag the hosts went into the break 31 – 17 ahead and with the wind at their backs for the second 40 it was looking good for the home side.
Frantic Pace
The second half started at a frantic pace with East London once again showing their attacking intent as they used the wind to great effect to put Millwall under pressure.
The pressure showed as the ball hit the ground in the Millwall in-goal area, scrumhalf Alex Pearmain pouncing for East London’s fifth score.
Millwall kept coming back however, and were rewarded for their ambition when Cooper made a scintillating break through the heart of the East London defence before offloading to Andrew Matthews who touched down under the sticks to make the score 36 – 21 and breath live back into the visitors.
Resurgence
This resurgence by Millwall was brought to an abrupt end by the East London forward pack who took the game by the scruff of the neck and showed how dynamic they are at both set piece time and in open play as they began to dominate the scrum and around the fringes of the ruck with pick and goes.
“Our forward pack can mix it up when they have to, so we have a good balance here and we have pace to burn in the backs,” Gooby said.
With their pack dominating the East London backline made Millwall pay with further tries from Roach (2), Bill Brown (2) whilst flanker Robert Ylannakou collected one for the forwards.
These scores alongside a penalty for Millwall brought the final score to 64 – 24 and sees East London locked into second spot in the league ahead of their trip to league champions Epping Upper Clapton.
Looking forward
Looking ahead to the challenge Gooby said: “We’ve got a massive game up next against the champions up in Upper Clapton, so the table doesn’t lie they are the best team in the league and we are going to go out and try and test ourselves as best we can against the best team in the league.”
When asked about his chances Gooby was optimistic: “It’s just about doing the processes right and sticking to our game plan, when an individual decides that I am going to do a little bit of fancy stuff we don’t react very quickly and then our system goes. When our system works, I don’t think that there are many teams that can keep with us.”
Teams 15-1:
East London RFC: Maxwell Stanyard, Sean Cooper, Jackson Roach, Lachlan McKenzie, Bill Brown, Ryan Billinghurst, Alex Pearmain, Nick Parrott, Simon Edscer, Robert Ylannakou, Jack Millard, Luke Staples-Preston, Patrick Coman, Lewis Bourke, Ben Hogan
Replacements: Mantas Urbonavicius, Daniel Bracken, Kevin O’Donoghue
Millwall RC: Alex Manning, Christopher Prowse, Jack Eastwood, Andrew Matthews, Harry Barrett, Riordan Cooper, Michael Taylor, Ronan Murray, Matthew Evans, Bruno Brods, Samuel Walters, Shekhar Palit, Toby Sanders, Chirantha Ulapane, Evan Byrne
Replacements: Andrew Stephens, Daniel Blades, Matthew Watts
Scorers:
East London RFC:
Tries:
Roach (2),McKenzie (2),Cooper(2),Brown(2), Pearmain, Ylannakou
Conversions:
Stanyard (4), Billinghurst (3)
Millwall RFC
Tries:
Prowse, Matthews (2)
Conversions:
Cooper (3)
Penalty:
Cooper
