STILL A LONG WAY TO GO YET

On an idyllic sunny autumn afternoon in front of a large crowd Rochford were unable to respond to the challenge against a fast and aggressive Romford team who scored six tries to rub salt into an already open wound.

A promising start by the home side when Matt Stewart slotted over a penalty kick was short lived as Romford responded with three tries in quick succession to take a 17-3 lead.

There was not too much in the way of positive rugby from Rochford throughout the first half as the set scrum was continually under pressure and lineout was hit and miss together with making a number of errors in general play and some poor decision making.

Further converted try by Romford took the score to 3-24 at the turnaround and left a mountain to climb for the home side.

A couple of changes at half time helped Rochford regroup and they started to play with more purpose and aggression especially in the set scrummage as they pushed the big Romford pack off the ball regularly during this period.

This effort was rewarded after some sustained pressure on the Romford try line by the referee awarding a penalty try which was not converted but reduced the deficit to 8-24.

Rochford forced the pace showing what they are capable of if they put their minds to it and again after more powerful play from the forwards another penalty try was given and with the conversion put them only 15-24 behind.

Was this going to be another second half revival? The answer, unfortunately, was no as Romford upped their game and finished deserved winners with two more converted tries without further reply from their hosts.

The squad now really need to look at themselves and decide what needs to be done and how they are going to achieve it as coach Michael Guess stressed in no uncertain terms to them after the game was over.

Next week a trip to Romford to play Campion. At the moment not a given as it is always a difficult place to play at and in spite of their opposition’s lowly league position Rochford are not far behind them.