4th March 2006

Dagenham 38 - 0 Burnham Home

Back to 3 o'clock kick off, hasn't time flown! a really good win, Second league game on the trot where the oppositions score stayed at nil! started off on the back foot for at least 10 minutes, didn't front up to the tackle, didn't go up to meet the tackle, we got that sorted out, scored a try against the run of play, good work by Darryl who popped the ball over to the centres and young Perry lock finishing off which got the ball rolling for the afternoon. Good first half performance good second half performance, over complicated things with the ball, didn't use our overlap, . . . sooner or later we are going to get this right, we will get it right, even though we are winning by margins and doing well this year, we have got to learn to use head up rugby and do the basics right then we'll win games by a mile, but can't complaint, we got a 38 - nil win.

25th February 2006

Dagenham 13 - 10 Bancroft Away

Bancroft, a league above us, seem to be struggling this year, they got promotion last year. Started off very very brightly into a stiff breeze, kept the ball in hand, but unfortunately didn't score any points. We came close a few times, over complicated things as usual and we turned around nil-nil at half time. Second half was different, wind behind our backs, unfortunately you cant on the wind to do everything for you, you have to go and place the ball over the white wash, Kicked a penalty which was quite good and then let them in for a soft try and then we come away with a break away a good charge down and skirted in under the posts and converted that to go 10 - 5 and then let in a very very soft try towards the end of the game from a line out, it was like the parting of the red sea, everyone just stopped and looked at this prop just fall over the line. It didn't look pretty, conversion was missed and there was 2 minuets to go! Give loui credit, He called for the drop goal if we got near their 22, we went straight back down there, put pressure on , turned the ball over from kick off , pushed into their 22, He took his first snap and missed unfortunately the man taking the ball didn't have time to call mark and he took the ball and we turned him over resulting in a scrummage , we had another go and converted a drop goal nice to away from home to a higher league opposition and just nick it. Credit to Bancroft , they always try to play rugby, it was a pleasant afternoon.

18th February 2006

No game for the first team this week, supposed to take the opportunity to watch the seconds and the benchers play but unfortunately Braintree in their wisdom and as usual did not travel!!!!

11th February 2006

Dagenham 63 - nil Loughton Home League

A 1st half to be proud of, a 1st half you seize while you coach, to see things going right, to see the boys really getting on the front foot with a big go forward and to see them play some really decent stuff, some really good rugby. Loughton never laid down and I would say we played for 60 minutes out of the 80. we had a little lull but then that's one of those things that happen in rugby, you're never going to get the perfect 80 but we got the 63 nil and its the nil that really counts, an excellent performance by the boys, long may it continue.

5th February 2006

Dagenham 15 - 7 Burnham on Crouch

Semi finals of the presidents shield, The last of the long journeys of the year, A hard place to travel to and a hard place to win, got down there in good time, good preparation, the boys were ready for it, spoilt our own position first half, didn't get into our driving game from the line outs and we didn't use our men out wide when we had the ball to make things a little bit more simple, we turned up 3 nil at half time. we upped our game in the second half, we came out all guns blazing, started the second half very very well, got ourselves infront, we went 15 nil up, had a couple of tries dis-allowed, through the referee being unsighted of the ball. Burnham battled all the way, scored a try on quick tap penalties, kept on moving forward but we done very very well defensively, we had a man sin binned in the last 15 minuets, quick tap penalties kept bringing the game to us but our defence held up very very solid, back to full compliment with 5 minuets to and closed the game out! not the prettiest of performances, but as they say, a win is a win and that win puts us into the final of the presidents shield for the second time in 3 years, so well done Dagenham.

28th January 2006

Dagenham 8 - 31 Clacton Away League

Travelled down in good time, good preparation, around 6 players down on the day, that hasn't really mattered this year, we've had a good squad atmosphere but yet again it seemed to be just one of those slow starts, within a minute a try down, within 20 minuets I was 2 men down with injuries, which added to our troubles, one of them days , I think we turned around at half time something like 26 nil down, we lost the game 31 points to 8, not a good day, a very bad performance, It was as though nobody wanted to know, but we put that behind us, pick ourselves up and brush ourselves down.

21st January 2006

Dagenham 12 - 17 Writtle

Started the game too slowly, didn't risk it in the first half, caught 4 or 5 times down the blind side in the first half, really that opened us up, not very good, half way through the first half we scored a couple of good tries one towards the end of the half, turned around at half time 12-10 up, unfortunately, lost a try converted in the second half to one penalty. Not a very good day, felt as thought the boys seemed a bit scared of what they had already achieved, A bit hard to take in, first home game in about 6 weeks, so expected a bit more out of it. Very Bad day at the office.

14th January 2006

Dagenham 23-12 Clacton

decent journey down there, short of preparation as kick off was very very early, started the game with a nice catch from the kick off, great drive, clean ball out, mistake, ball got turned over and I'm thinking to myself, someone's gonna make a tackle, someone's gonna make a tackle, aaaaand . . no one made one! hence Clacton going over in the first minute of the game and converting it, done well the rest of the first half, we come back near enough straight away and scored a try and we had 2 chances to score tries again but we over complicated and was greedy with the ball. spent 30 minutes defending, still scrummaging, heads down, no head up rugby what so ever, and no real game plan played, we just went out there and played 40 minuets of so called rugby. half time came along and yours truly gave them both barrels, picked our game up, got a game plan going, everything we had spoke about in training we were now putting into practise. and hence scored tries and come away with our win.

7th January 2006

Dagenham 18-3 old Brentwood's Away

A still day, but still very difficult conditions under foot, very wet and very very muddy, but managed to have a really really good game, we stuck to the task very well and turned round at half time 11-3 and basically tackled for 30 minuets of the second half one attack one score game over thankyou very much , ta. walked away from it! yet again old Brentwood's , a very tidy side, looked to move the ball wide all the time, we stuck to our task snubbed everything out, very good.

17th December 2005

Dagenham 15-17 Turlock 2's

a very good game of rugby, 6 changes to the side, Tony whybrow and Neil Mitchell coming into the second row, good game all round, them two boys in the engine room worked tirelessly, we lost on the final kick of the game, a very harsh way to lose but then again we have won games like that before.

10TH DECEMBER 2005

Dagenham 17 - 20 Stanford Away

A day which was error. . . after error . . after error! They played a 9 man game , because all they done was got to the 9 and booted and we made mistakes. It was a good day for rugby, the sun was shining, no wind the only bad conditions were conditions under foot were very slippery, and we paid the price! we wasn't strong enough, we didn't battle hard enough, we didn't adapt well enough, didn't take our chances in the 1st half, got greedy with it, instead of taking 3 points we went for 5 or 7 and they didn't come about. The second half was allot better, although we gave away a penalty again straight into the second half, we nosed our way infront and then they put us on the back foot again and then we got ourselves back infront, I thought , right , that's it now but yet again left defending our line again for the last 5 minuets, we took our foot off in discipline which lost us the game! always said to the boys after each game when we end up defending for the last 5 minuets and taking our foot off, what happens in a tight game, . . well that's what happens , you lose! any way, at the beginning of the season if someone would have offered me 7 out of 8 league games I would have chopped your arm off for it!!! So till now we have done well!!!

3RD DECEMBER 2005

Dagenham 35 - 3 Millwall Home

Very good all round performance, we did not concede a try and played a pretty constructed game all the way through. Very pleased with some of the tries which was from good work on the paddock and our defensive line was a whole lot better than it was 2 weeks ago. we move onto the game against Stanford on the 10th December! hopefully we can get a win there.

19TH NOVEMBER 2005

Dagenham 30 - Millwall 10 Away (presidents shield)

Turned up in good time, decent warm up and started the game well. Unfortunately we did not play as well as I expected. The score line didn't reflect the amount of mistakes that we had made, the only thing to go really well during the day was the catch and drive, we scored 3 tries from it, our defensive areas were horrendous, we did not move the ball wide enough, we took into contact needlessly, and we never got past 1st phase rugby! Give Millwall their due, they come at us, they run at us, but we should have been better than that! We have got to be self critical about our own performances. Hopefully in a fortnights time when we play them in the league at home we can rectify everything that went wrong today!

12TH NOVEMBER 2005

Dagenham 30 - Old Brentwood's 5 Home

started the game off well,,scored very early, but just to concede one straight afterwards. Had a try dis-allowed in the first ten minutes and things went quite well. The boys were very structured during the game, putting plenty of pressure on, good first up tackles only thing happening was passes going to ground and obviously mistakes were being made and we were not kicking our penalties. Ball out of hand to touch was very good and generally the first half went very well, towards the end of the first half we scored a couple of tries and ended up 18-5 at half time. Second half , same as writtle, I think we spent at least 30 minuets in our oppositions half. Much, much better this week. we come away with allot more points with the pressure we had, Old Brentwood's played some decent rugby, got so much respect for their coach Eugene, really does try to put his boys out there to play a game of rugby, Both sides played some good stuff!! scrummage went well, line out went well, ball out of hand obviously had some really good tries scored. Next week we move on to millwall and the presidents shield, Today they had their spies out so hopefully we can go there and give a good performance.

5TH NOVEMBER 2005

No game this week for the1st team. 2nds and 3rds played, yet again this gave me the opportunity to watch the 2nd team play and also give those that have been benching , 80 minuets of rugby. Second team had a very controlled performance against London fours, miles too strong for east London fours, really and truly we need to up the fixtures to be more competitive, very well controlled game, the boys done well.

Saturday 29th October

Dagenham 23 -- Writtle 7 Away

We got caught cold in the first 5 minutes of the game scrummage on our 22 very lack luster putting pressure on their 10 , 10 chipped over and we were basically out of position their 12 chased onto the ball and walked in under the posts unapposed. got the initial shock out of our system i suppose from the travelling, but we come back into the game very well we built up a series of penalties, 5 or 6 penalties, 3 of them were converted which put us into a 9-7 lead, and then phil crawly there with his chip and chase getting held up on the line and popping off to billy nelson under the posts which was converted . 16-7 at half time. Second half i would say that we wasn't really troubled in any part of the secnd half. Our line out went well as did our scrummaging, probably took it in too tight to the fringes instead of moving it out wider a little bit quicker because they had a very very big pack, but otherwise we saw a try converted second half but thats all we had to show for total dominance of the second half, but i don't think that we were in any trouble what so ever, i felt as though it was not the best of our games by far we are not at our best but it was by far the best constructed game that we have done where we have taken points that are on offer and built on it. So onwards and upwads we continue our progress ! ! ! ! hopefully we will get a really big performance soon.

Saturday 22nd October

Dagenham 19 _ Clacton 10 Home

Great 25 minute period, started off exceptionally well playing some really good decent rugby, took clacton apart in every department, we ere 19-nil up before we could say boo! Then clacton changed their tactics which wasn't very nice to see either , continuoudly laying across the ball , coming in from the side, you name it they done it!!! any kind of skull duggery to slow the ball down !! starting spats, wasn't very pretty in the end and they got a try right at the end of the first half and one at the end of the second half but inbetween it all was pur frustration with the whole game in itself. They had two people sin binned, prop for propping up and a very late tackle on our flyhalf, but the prop continued to prop up all game long so really and truly he should have walked but he never, but there you go thats one of them things! final ten minuets was the best part of rugby that we played we really took the ball up well with the forwards which created alot of space and the boys moved the ball well, unfortuatly dropping a couple of chances just before the line, with knock ons and one where we didn't have enough vision and we come back inside instead of moving it wide, but otherwise the last ten minutes was the best of a bad second half. the way i see it is the referee started pinging them towards the end game as they were getting tired and we were still on fresh legs. so definatly happy with the result, 19-10, but not the greatest of games, but you don't win leagues by having the greatest of games each week. somthing we've gotta live with now that teams will change their tactics, they basically don't want to play rugby against us.

Saturday 15th October

Dagenham 25 _ Loughton 10 Away

Our re-arranged game against Loughton, Funny old game this one, we put the accelerator on, then took it off, then put it on, took it off and so on, all ...day... long, the beauty of it is we felt as though we were always in control of this game and the scores would come, we only turned around at half time 8-3 up , just scoring at the end of the first half after exchanging a penalty a piece. We basically stopped any kind of movement that they wanted to do which was good work by the forwards there, we thought this would be more of an forward orientated game and it seemed to be and the beauty of it is our forwards scored their first tries of the season. Some good tries scored, we come away from there, happy day had by all and we went back to the top of the table so that was a nice thing to happen that weekend, next game is Clacton next week at home, seems as though we haven't been at home for a while.

Saturday 8th October

Supposed to have played Loughton this week, Unfortunately Loughtons referee got called away to another game. A bit fortunate I think ! , but there you go we have to get on with things and hopefully the game will be played next week. Very disappointed that we never played the game, but the boys were all up for training so we had a squad training session and it went rather well, probably one of our most productive training sessions that we have had all year so all very good there, Well done the boys!!!

Saturday 1st October

This week we had a weeks rest, we had about 8 running injuries, ham strings, necks, and dead legs amongst other things ! so we had a week off to rest and recover and patch our wounded. This gave me a chance to watch our second team and a couple of boys that had been regular benchers to the 1st team bench so they got a run out in the second team cup. Some decent performances, i think we got caught a little bit cold at the begining, a little bit too much respect but an excelent second half performance, a good battle incurred. A good week to see the twos play and see how they are progressing under brian and peter. Which is a good thing.

24th september 2005

Dagenham 43 - Burnham on Crouch 7 Away

second league game of the season, Burnham lost their 1st game 22-15 to old brentwoods and had a narrow defeat against Thames in the powergen so we didn't know what were up against there. Fantastic weather down in burnham, we had a good journey down. Great preporation, every one travelled together which made a good change , we were out on the paddock early for a decent warm up. We had a few changes to the side due to injuries and unavailability, but anybody thats coming into this side this year has done a fantastic job !! Started off very very well from the kick off, we took the ball and were on the offensive right from the start. Never took a backward step all day long, if anybody thought may and baker had a lonely day in bad conditions the lonely day was definatly with Burnham as we turned around at half time with a 25 nil lead, and we progressed from that to make it 43 nil only to conceed a penalty try at the death of the game which i felt was very harsh, but the referee did explain to me afterwards that we had four penalties against us on the trot but they had also dropped the ball twice going towards our line, So , well , i think it's two 6's there. good performence all round, any changes that were made didn't really make any difference to the side. sides going well, so we are pleased on that account. We continue our journey once again, working hard and continuing to make good progress !! Keep it up boys !!!

17th september 2005

Upminster 13 Dagenham 5 Home

Upminster , 1st round of the powergen vase, The road to Twickenham. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and unfortunately it stopped there, we were hoping to get as far as possible in this competition but it was not to be, (this year!!!!) we didn't play for around the first 25 minuets , umpteen mistakes, good conditions, suited us down to the ground, but we froze, scored after about 27 mins to get us back into the game at 8 5, and thats how it stayed untill about 10 minuets before the end of the 1st half. They got what i call a numpty try. We hammered them in the second half but just couldn't seem to put our chances away.we have learnt our lesson as upminster are tagged to win essex 1. so nothing to be afraid of when we get promotion this year!!!! (hopefully!!!)

Hi everybody, sorry about last years write ups, I lost 8 weeks in one foul swoop of the computer, thank you technology !!!! so, pre-season training, everything has gone very well. good numbers have been turning up, between 30 and 40 a session which is very good for a club of our size and some new faces to boot, so we are very happy with that. Lots of things have happened since the end of last season, one of which is that we have a new sponsor, and another is the progression of a third team. so thing are progressing quite nicely and the club is expanding all the time. We had Eaton manors tournament cancelled, but we did have a training game of four quarters at home with Basildon on 24th august 2005 of which went very well, and on our 12th week we started our season with a friendly against Romford 2nds on the 3rd september 2005 with a 38 to 20 win, club history made, what a great start to a new season.

1st league game of the season

10th september 2005

Dagenham 27 - May and Baker 5 Home

yes, the local Darby.!! started the game very brightly in torrential rain which I was dreading as this played into Bakers hands. We actually cleared through the rucks, moved the ball well and scored some superb tries through our back line. 17 nil at half time ,everything going very well, the second half even better, only another 10 points though, we spoilt some chances and let them in for a consolation try through a mistake through the weather. more than anything I would have liked to have seen a bit more dryer ground so we could play our game, we done very well and hopefully this will continue.