ROCHFORD MADE TO WORK HARD FOR THEIR FIFTH WIN

In spite of their lowly position it was never going to be easy away at Beccles and so it proved with a much Improved performance from the home side and a below par one from the visitors.

Rochford plight was not helped when inspirational captain Sam Tape had to withdrew last minute to the bench due to illness but Billy Ellis stepped up to the task in his usual way.

The boys in black had one of those days when attempted moves just did not come off and they had unaccustomed lapses in concentration which led to poor handling and general errors.

Having said all that they still managed to dig deep and come away with the result and a bonus point as well.

Beccles started as they meant to continue with good ,aggressive forward play and a determination not to be out played by their higher placed opponents.

An early try resulted when Beccles no.6 crashed over for a well taken try and soon after they were awarded a penalty chance.This was slotted over to put Beccles ahead 8 – 0 and were good value for it.

Rochford woke up to the challenge and responded with a fine individual try by stand off Dan Needham who weaved his way through the opposition to score under the posts for Tom Ashton to convert.

Rochford set scrum was working well and scrum half was putting in some good work pressurising his opposite number at the base of the scrum and the front row was picking up ball against the head.

The lineouts were 50 /50 but in the loose Beccles seemed to have the edge with their more focussed play.A number of potentially successful Rochford moves broke down or were defended against by the home outfit and there,also, were many stoppages for various reasons which helped the Suffolk side reorganise and frustrated Rochford.

A further try for the home team came when their centre went over and then converted his own effort.

As the first half drew to a conclusion some of the frustration from the Rochford prospective was relieved when scrum half Bracknell .who was having a fine game sped over for an unconverted try and reduce the arrears to 15 – 12 in Beccles favour.

The second half was a much better display by the Essex lads as they seemed to have shaken off the long journey and their apathy.

Firstly Ashton kicked over a good penalty to bring the scores level at 15 – 15 and as the match progressed the visitors began to take some control of the ball supply although silly errors still crept into their game which kept them from scoring more points.

Wing Sean Conneely seemed to finish off a good quality piece of Rochford play after some sustained pressure only for the ball to be adjudged not grounded.It seemed to summerise Rochford’s whole game up to that point.

Finally late in the game the breaks came when flanker Darren Spencer powered over for a try which Ashton converted to put Rochford in the lead for the first time .

In a furious final quarter Beccles defended terrifically against everything Rochford threw at them until the last gasp of the match .The other Rochford flanker Andy Baker , who seems to have found a new lease of rugby life,burst through and out ran the Beccles defence to dive over to claim the bonus point and which Ashton duly converted .The final whistle blew much to the relief of the away side and certainly to the disappointment of the home team who had fought so hard throughout the match but came away with nothing.

It , again ,was a typical example of taking the points when offered and keeping your discipline under pressure which Rochford did and ,dare I say , Beccles unfortunately for them did not.

Congrates to Ross Murphy on his 30th and celebrated on the field with a fine performance with plenty of positive effort and encouraging chat.