Early pressure by the home team was rewarded with a Nick Ventress penalty before Old Haberdashers responded with a penalty try and the game became a dour affair with errors from both sides .

Rochford’s lineout was not working as well as it should with too much tapped ball but scrum half Lloyd O’Connor showed his class with delicate box kicks and plenty of tidying up.

Nick Ventress at stand off also showed excellent hands picking up and distributing good ball as well as taking on the opposition

He narrowed the gap with another penalty kick before the visitors replied with one of their own.

Ventress kicked his third penalty before half time for Rochford to turn round at the break 9 – 10 adrift.

Although lineout was untidy and Rochford were under increasing pressure in the set scrum the forwards worked with vigour in the loose and turned over a good deal of Haberdashers ball.

The old boys had their chances but either excellent defence or mistakes kept them from scoring and this gave Rochford confidence as they began to move the ball more through the backs.

The home side launched an attack which gave top try scorer Sam Barnes some room which he used to speed over for a terrific try and give his team the lead at 14 – 10.

Haberdashers reduced the deficit with another penalty but Ventress kicked over his fourth penalty to keep Rochford on the front foot.

It was now noticeable that the boys in black were getting the upper hand and the momentum was with them.

Rochford went up a gear as the game went into the last few minutes and another fine piece of play saw full back Marcus Spremulli dash through a tied Haberdasher defence to score a match winning try.

A big boost for the whole squad after some poor recent performances but the boys will have to go up a few more gears against Eton Manor at home next Saturday.