WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES

After the downer of last Saturday this was the perfect tonic to finish the home campaign before Christmas with a hard fought victory over old rivals South Woodham.

With a much changed back line Rochford looked a far better outfit and were positive from the start and put Woodham under a great deal of early pressure.

As often happens with Rochford they could not capitalise with points on the board and South Woodham broke away.

They attacked and were rewarded with a penalty kick which they duly turned into 3 points. This lead did not last long as Rochford came back strongly and from a scrum on the visitors line classy scrum half Ricky Gould picked up and darted over for a try which Scott Horsburgh converted for Rochford to take a 7 -3 lead.

Both sides fought it out up front and set scrummages were fairly even all afternoon but the home team’s lineout was working very well where Tape,Whight and Horsburgh won plenty of good ball.

In the loose Rochford seemed to have the edge with Wheeler, Bacon, Corbet and Bass having good games although both sides turned over ball on a number of occasions.

The second try was a cracker with some lovely ball play from the back line especially with Stewart showing some nice touches and for wing Louie Marshall to race away to score under the posts.

Horsburgh, once again, slotted over the kick for the 2 extra to take his team to a 14-3 score line.

Just before half time Woodham reduced the deficit with another penalty kick to turn round 14-6 in arrears.

The second session carried on from the first with Rochford gradually becoming stronger in most phases and the excellent Tom Corbet carried on his good form from last week by scoring a try and the boot of Horsburgh added the extra.

The visitors rallied and went over for a converted try to keep themselves in the game at 21 -13 but Rochford were not to be denied and the fourth and bonus try eventually came when impressive wing Matthew White used his strength and speed to score after some good play from Matt Stewart, Michael Stemp and others.

No.8 Scott Horsburgh is a big, strong player but has not had many opportunities to use his ample kicking skills but on this afternoon he was given that chance and took it with pleasure as he converted White’s try to put Rochford into a an unassailable lead of 28-13.

But with the magnolia lads nothing can be taken for granted and the last 10 minutes of this entertaining game became a little anxious as the visitors, who were still full of fight, threw everything at their opponents which resulted in them going over for a late try.

It was important for Rochford to deny South Woodham any losing bonus points which they did and the result takes them into sixth place above Woodham and just behind Cantabridgian who Rochford play next week.

An excellent result in front of a good crowd with many very good individual performances but there are still too many unnecessary penalties being given away and team discipline must become a priority.