Woodford 23 - 17 Dagenham

Dagenham snatched defeat from the jaws of victory this weekend, losing 23-17 away to Woodford in a true game of two halves. On another hot afternoon, Dagenham started brightly, Jordan Darkwa immediately breaking tackles from the kickoff. The width of Dagenham’s play was stressing the Woodford defence and soon drew a penalty, with Tommy Cameron knocking over the kick to take the first points, 0-3. Dagenham again worked their way up the field from the kick-off, with powerful carrying in the middle of the park opening up space for the wingers to exploit. The half-backs Cook and Cameron were displaying exceptional game control and the first try soon resulted; Cameron put in a deft grubber kick behind the rush defence for captain Farrell to collect and dot down in the corner. Cameron converted the touchline kick to further extend the lead. It was now time for Woodford’s response and a prolonged period of possession in the Dagenham 22, however resolute defending continued to repel them. Eventually Dagenham conceded a kickable penalty, which Woodford duly converted to bring the score to 3-10. Dagenham immediately looked to turn the pressure back onto their hosts, with physical carries and good handling finding the gaps. A Woodford player was soon shown a yellow card for repeat offences and Dagenham opted to kick to the corner. A clean lineout set the platform before the ball was fed to the backs, with Cameron spotting the gap and stepping back inside the defence to score himself to extend the lead to 3-17. Dagenham were soon awarded another penalty around 40 metres out and opted to take the kick, unfortunately on this occasion the kick from Cameron drifted wide. Woodford again applied attacking pressure of their own, eventually resulting in a yellow card for Dagenham. The D’s defence still managed to hold out however until half time.

The second half saw Dagenham start fast, gaining a lineout on Woodford’s try line. Unfortunately, the execution let the D’s side down and Woodford were able to clear their lines. This turned out to be Dagenham’s best chance of the half, as the tide turned dramatically soon after. Dagenham appeared unable to hold onto possession as their discipline turned into a significant issue, every time they managed a period of defending or achieved a turnover, the ball was immediately given back to Woodford due to a penalty. The disciplinary cost only got worse, as Dagenham received three separate yellow cards in quick succession for high tackles. This resulted them in playing well a significant portion of the second half down to 13 men and a team of the quality of Woodford were able to capitalise on the numerical advantage. Woodford kept Dagenham pinned into their half and, cheered on by their vocal support, scored three tries through their forward pack to slowly but surely reel in and then overtake Dagenham’s lead. With the score at 23-17, Dagenham threw everything at Woodford in the final five minutes but, despite having dominated in the scrum for the majority of the game, conceded a scrum penalty in a promising position on the Woodford try line. With that, the chance of victory was gone and Woodford cleared their lines to end the contest. Dagenham will again be left rueing errors at key times and their discipline in the second half in what was an eminently winnable game. There will be some key work-on's in training this week, ahead of their next game hosting Holt at Central Park.