Chelmsford’s veteran team, the Undertakers, faced Upminster at home on Saturday and walked away with a well-earned 65-12 win.

After Barking gave a walkover over to Chelmsford’s first team the Undertakers found themselves in the spotlight as the only senior Chelmsford team playing at home this week.

The Undertakers got off to a flying start with blistering pace in the back line and the effort and work rate of players 20 years younger in the forward pack.

Chelmsford quickly found gaps in the Upminster midfield, which they exploited with Dom Fenton (fly-half) gaining meaningful yards time and again, and with good lines run by supporting players; Fenton was able to offload the ball with ease. Throughout the game, the Undertakers’ forward pack dominated the scrums and line-outs, despite the larger Upminster pack. Forwards and backs combined well but Chelmsford found themselves on the defensive for long periods of the second half and Upminster’s number 8 did eventually breach their line.

Fortunately, tries from Steve Clarke, Matt Corbett, Dom Fenton and Spencer Cater saw the Undertakers victorious.

This victory was somewhat overshadowed, however, by an historic day for the club. Since the club was established in 1920, it has always been a family club with senior and youth teams in training there, and recent years have seen a surge in the ladies’ section as well.

Throughout this year, Kristen O’Connell and Desiree Olliver-Moss have been coaching several girls with a view to developing a girls’ team at the club and on Sunday, Chelmsford’s first-ever girls’ team played in their first ever rugby festival at Stanford-le-Hope.

Coach O’Connell said of the experience “We have a lot to work on but what we’ve seen today is that we have a lot to work with. “Every try scored is a team try and every missed tackle or lost ball is felt by the whole team too and I think the girls can see that better for having played their first real games.

“Above all, I am so proud of the girls and can’t wait to get back to training!”