It was a match between two excellent teams played with power, skill and total commitment from both sides and after a titanic struggle Rochford finished worthy winners .

If you were a betting person you would not have put money on Rochford winning,let alone picking up bonus points, in the first half hour of this clash of the titans.

Braintree came keyed up for this game and were all power and fast hands as they attacked the home side from the off and Rochford were pinned in their twenty two and had to defend desperately to keep Braintree out .

Pressure told in the end and Rochford conceded a push over try after more power play from their opponents.Braintree also had the advantage of a strong wind which made it difficult for Rochford to break away from their own half without the visitors counter attacking with venom.

Slowly the home side began to respond and when they did break away they looked dangerous .Some super fast play from Rochford resulted in centre Matt.Stewart speeding in for a fine try which Tom Ashton duly converted to take the home side ahead against the run of play.

The aggressive North Essex outfit continued to keep up their momentum and right on the stroke of half time their efforts paid dividends with a converted try from sustained pressure to retake the lead at the break and should have given Braintree a psychological advantage.

It was, however, Rochford’s turn to use the advantage of the wind which they certainly did during a magical second session.

All the hard defensive work of the first half was put behind them as they took the game by the scruff of the neck ,using their ball skills and intelligence to turn the game round.

A period of some outstanding ball play saw wing Greg.Stubbs bursting through to ground the ball under the posts for a thankful Ashton to kick over and then Ashton himself showing excellent skills to score another try.There were other times when only a bad bounce of the ball or mistaken chances prevented Rochford scoring again as Ashton kept pressure on Braintree with long raking kicks into space for wings Conneely and Stubbs to chase.

Stand off Dan Needham made sure his back division kept driving forward as a steady supply of good loose and lineout ball allowed the ever lively scrum half Dan Bracknell to feed Needham or bring back into the forwards ,where Darren Spencer,George Chipper and later in game ,James Needham ran the tiring Braintree defence ragged.

This did not mean Braintree weren’t still dangerous as they were and Rochford had to defend furiously to keep them out. It just meant that they had lost that cutting edge to their play which the canny home outfit began to exploit.

Further Rochford pressure gave Ashton the chance of a penalty kick which he slotted over to increase the lead to 22 -12 but the game was still finely balanced until No. 8 George Chipper broke Braintee’s heart to finish off another terrific piece of play by the boys in black to seal this most entertaining confrontation of the top two sides and as icing on the cake to secure bonus points.

As last week there were many great performances from those mentioned as well as the likes of Tom Corbet, Billy Ellis Sam Tape and also another impressive display from Robert Prior.

This was a massive performance of character, determination and skill from a team that is becoming a very formidable outfit with great belief in themselves. They must not relax as there are some big games ahead and many hurdles to overcome before this league is decided.

One very big hurdle has been overcome and the boys can looked forward to the next few weeks with a quiet confidence.

Additional photos by Russell Shepherd

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