LACK OF FINISHING POWER LETS ROCHFORD DOWN

On an afternoon that should have been Rochford’s, the home side sneaked a win against the total run of the game which the away side had dominated.

Even the most diehard Braintree supporter would admit that the victory by their team was a shock result given that Rochford could count probably at least five or six tries that went begging.

Rochford have only themselves to blame for not finishing their opponents off in the first half and giving away too many unnecessary penalties and more importantly not finishing off some terrific running rugby.

Having seemed to have learnt lessons from the previous week and of past encounters with this side Rochford did not allow the home side to settle into any form of rhythm and attacked Braintree at every opportunity.

The revamped Rochford eight fought with vigour and intensity to provide Dan Bracknell with plenty of ball to feed the impressive stand off Dan Needham and captain Tom Ashton to help launch many fast running moves involving forwards and backs with wings Robert Prior and Sam Edwards getting plenty of chances to show off their skills.

The formidable back row of Baker, Spencer and Needham linked well to create opportunities especially when hooker Scott Chivers made a terrific break only to knock on over the line .It summed up the Rochford’s efforts of the first half.

The only score in this session was a Tom Ashton penalty which was scant reward for all the hard worked put in by the team.It was only good defensive work by Braintree and Rochford lack of discipline falling foul of the referee’s whistle that kept the score down.

The second half continued in the same vain but pressure eventually told when Tom Ashton scorched round the Braintree defence to score a well deserved try.The rest of the half was a case of Braintree defending and counteracting but being snuffed out by the visitors defence and Rochford launching attacks of their own but failing to finish off some excellent moves .

In spite of the closeness of the score Hundred seemed comfortable but in the course of just a few minutes the game totally changed.

With just ten minutes to go the home side got the breakthrough they needed and ran in a converted try.

Now at 8 – 7 to the visitors and the clock ticking down it still looked as if they could play out the game for a deserved victory but fate took a hand as well as a poor decision to run the ball out of defence in their twenty two area. It was almost inevitable that the move would break down and the ball fall loose.

Braintree could not believe their luck and pounced on the ball and to drive over for the try and then to convert the effort to finish surprised winners of a game which should have gone to their opponents.

That is the way it goes and Rochford can only put it down to experience knowing that they have the game to give a number of sides problems and are capable of playing some sublime rugby but only so long as they can tighten up their discipline and find that little extra to put away the scores after doing all the hard work.