Saturday, 13th September 2025.
The Brigs faced their first tough test of the new season at home against Sidcup IIIs, and came through it convincingly despite the visitors taking an early lead and pressing the Club side hard throughout. Though the first half was very even, the Brigands pulled away in the second half and finished up 43-12 winners.
Sidcup started brightly and opened the scoring after 5 minutes when some indifferent Club handling and indiscipline gave the visitors field position. From a lineout close to the Brigands line, Sidcup’s maul crabbed into the centre of the field and took the Club defence with it, leaving space for the reverse to the blind side. The Brigs were slow to react, and the visitors took a deserved early lead. Sidcup’s try did wake up the Brigs backs, and shortly after the restart, a clearance kick was gathered by wing Rory Macleod, who found captain and fullback Kai Roper-Blackman who stepped and wove his way to halfway. Quick ball had Sidcup scrambling unsuccessfully, as the Club backs combined to put flyhalf Nathan Brindle over the line. Two minutes later the Brigs were celebrating again, this time after strong carries notably from forwards Cam Squire and James Sheldon created space for scrum half Alex Laurenti to break away and extend the Club lead. The rest of the first half was an even battle, with both sides alternating between struggling to find fluency, and threatening to break into some genuinely attractive rugby.
After the break it was the Brigands’ turn to start the brighter, and when Brindle scythed through the visitors’ line and took the play into the Sidcup 22, the fragmented defence were unable to stop centre Zac Bainbridge from pinballing through and scoring. Squire added to the score with a try a few minutes later, with the Club seemingly irresistible at the gain line and Sidcup apparently unable to gain any meaningful possession. An error at the subsequent restart however gifted Sidcup a scrum within 10m of the Brigands’ tryline, and despite holding out for some minutes, the visitors strung phases together impressively and eventually crashed over for their second try.
With parity in the lineout, the Brigands largely dominant in the scrums, and gaining ground with every carry, a way back into the game for Sidcup seemed improbable and another try for the club looked likely. All the forwards looked capable of scoring when the Brigands approached the Sidcup line, and second row Andrew Lock got close enough with one carry to extend and arm and place the ball on the tryline. Things went from bad to worse for the visitors moments later as a penalty kick missed touch and flew to Roper-Blackman, who opened Sidcup with another weaving run, the ball ending up in Macleod’s hands for another score. Stand-in flanker Tommaso Simpkins scored the final try of the game as play broke up in the final minutes and the ball went through the hands of half the Brigands team as they worked up the pitch. There was time for a final moment of comedy in the game, however, as prop Conor Mitchell who had narrowly missed out on scoring a try earlier, elected to pull the ball out of the ruck on the game’s last play and attempt a kick to touch, only to prod the ball directly to the Sidcup left wing. Simpkins saved any potential blushes by dragging the number 11 in to touch, ending the match.
The Brigands are top of Kent 5 with two bonus-point wins from two games and a points difference approaching +100. The team now has two weeks without a game and are next in action on 4 October at last year’s Kent Rural league winners Edenbridge, in what should be another tough game.
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