ROCHFORD HOPES STILL ALIVE

It was another one of those games that Rochford have served up on a number of times this season.

Having set the pace against an aggressive and combative Eton Manor side only to fall well behind due to their own failings as much as Manor’s stout defence but the team picked themselves up to come up trumps at the death.

The match was no classic as both sides made too many errors in play with the visitors making more than their fair share to put unnecessary pressure on themselves.

Eton Manor did themselves no favours, either, falling foul of the young referee with offside infringements and argueing,picking up two yellows and a red card .

The game started brightly for Rochford after absorbing early pressure, which Eton Manor would have been disappointed by coming away with nothing, excellent full back Dan Needham broke away and glided through for a try.

Rochford put together some inventive rugby but sometimes the execution left a lot to be desired and wayward passes or wrong decisions kept the score the same. They created enough opportunities to have laid this contest to bed by half time but failed to capitalise on the chances they had.

There were also a couple of penalty kicks which were just wide but it was the home outfit which struck back after thirty minutes to score a converted try. No more scoring up to the break and Rochford turned round 5 -7 down playing into a strong breeze.

Manor ,straight away, decided to take the game to their opponents and were rewarded with two tries,one of which was converted to increase their lead to 19 -5 but a good move by the boys in black allowed space for speedy wing Greg.Stubbs to find enough room to dive over in the corner to reduce the arrears.

The East Londoners responded again with another try which was duly converted to go 26 -10 ahead and the game seemed to be running away from the Essex side going into the final 15 minutes especially as a number of unforced errors and poor awareness hampered any potential comeback..

This Rochford side,however, have a little extra nowadays to call on when the chips are down as they have shown on many occasions and so it was to be again.

With their loyal supporters resigning themselves to a deserved defeat and possible relegation the team surged into life with first Kit Branch bursting over for an excellent try which he converted and shortly after captain Matt.Stewart finished off a fine move to touch down and secure a bonus point.

With only a few minutes left on the clock and with the score standing at 22-26 Rochford went for broke and a tiring Eton Manor side could only watch as scrum half Dan Bracknell scorched through to ground the ball and put his team into the lead once again.

Branch kicked over the conversion and the visitors hung on for the final seconds to secure a surprising and rare away win against Manor and just about deserved it for the character shown in the last quarter making amends for some sloppy play earlier on .

Some terrific performances from some players such as the Needham brothers, Michael Marks, Richard Mott, Greg Whight and others but it was the positive reaction by the team as a whole to come good when it was needed which impressed .

A week’s break now and a home game against Ruislip and the a testing one at Brentwood is all that is between staying up or going down but by the way this group of players can and do play their rugby it will be a very nail biting time for all of us .

I hope that we all have extra batteries for our pacemakers over the next three weeks because I have a feeling that we are going to need them.