Dagenham continue title charge

TOP of the table Dagenham produced a clinical performance at the weekend to see off basement boys East London at Central Park.

Still missing a few key players, the D's demonstrated the strength of their squad, as they raised their performance levels again.

Despite the one sided look of the scoreline, the Central Park outfit were made to work every inch of the way by a committed East London side, who possessed a decent scrum, well organised lineout and a couple of pacey backs.

The D's took a little while to get into their stride, before full back Dexter Devlin finished off on the right hand side. West Calverley added the next score before a tries in quick succession from Bill Nelson and number eight James Roberts, who grabbed a deserved score after a good Dagenham scrum.

The visitors kicked a penalty after some good pressure before Dagenham went up a gear to end the half strongly.

Jordan Wigham disrupted an East London lineout and as the ball went loose, skipper Ben Fowler reacted quickly to scoop up and finish well.

Just before the break, Dexter Devlin, who has been in superb form of late, showed all his strength to hold off several defenders and finish in the right hand corner.

The second half was quite attritional for the first ten or fifteen minutes, before Dagenham opened up again. West Calverley completed his brace, and from the kick off, excellent work by the Dagenham pack allowed them to recycle quick ball and Jordan Wigham thundered away. Showing good pace to beat the cover before smashing the last defender out of the way for a fine solo score. Dagenham continued to press hard. James Roberts darted into the visitors 22 and found support from Ben Fowler, when he was caught by the full back he managed to neatly offload to the supporting Billy Davis who scored a try that his excellent work rate deserved.

Play became a little ragged thereafter as the hosts chased more points, but they did round things off nicely when in form Simon Argent finished smartly, stepping the full back to claim the tenth try of the afternoon.

Despite the difficult conditions, West Calverley converted seven of the ten tries for a personal haul of 24 points, in what was another barnstorming display from the Dagenham vice captain.

Delighted skipper Ben Fowler said: "I am continually impressed by this group of players. This was never going to be an easy fixture, but the players have yet again, showed how much this season means to them.

"At times today we played some tremendous rugby, but what pleases me most, is that this is the fifth game on the trot where we have conceded single digits against us.

"There is still a lot of rugby to be played, but we are doing everything we can to be where it counts at the end of the season."