ROCHFORD FINISH WORTHY WINNERS IN THE RAIN

After all the good, dry weather of recent weeks the rain came down with a vengeance and could have spoilt Rochford’s chances of progressing in this competition.

As it turned out the match was an entertaining affair, particularly from Rochford’s point of view as they played the right tactics early on with driving mauls and long, racking kicks and aggressive loose play where all the forwards worked so well with Tom Corbet and Jake Knowles particularly prominent.

They dominated most aspects of play from the set scrum and lineouts to their aggression in the loose and only some very stout defending from Hampstead keep the score down for the majority of the game.

Scrum half Brett Smith opened the scoring soon into the game with a typical effort driving over from a pick up from a set scrum.

Weather conditions did not help either side as ball was won, then lost and turned over but it was Rochford that controlled and handled far better than the visitors.

Wave after wave of attacks were kept at bay by good tackling from the Londoners and some wayward stuff from the home team but another set piece on the visitors line brought rewards.

Impressive no.8 Scott Horsburgh ,who is in fine scoring fettle at present, drove over for another try and shortly after he landed a penalty kick to take the score line to 13 -0

This remained the same up to the break although it could have been more, such was the dominance of the boys in black.

The second half started with the Hampstead outfit applying more pressure and they were rewarded with a penalty kick that they duly slotted over.

In another piece of good attacking play they forced Rochford back on their line and should have scored when one of their forwards powered through only to drop the ball over the line.

A let off for the boys who reorganised themselves and came storming back but were unable to break through for more points.

In the lineouts Greg Whight, Sam Tape and Scott Horsburgh won plenty of good ball and used this with effect by creating driving mauls.

This tactic and good kicking from Ashton won Rochford a great deal of territory and Adam Ashton was also on form with some neat little kicks and chases which kept the opposition on their toes.

In the set scrum the front row of Mark, Chivers and Brooker and later Wiseman and Bass were immensely powerful and allowed the pack to drive and disrupt Hampstead’s put ins.

No more score until the last quarter but further tries by Whight and Ashton, both converted by Ashton, was the icing on the cake and no more than the team deserved.

An excellent performance in difficult conditions and they keep up the momentum going back to league action at home to South Woodham next week.