A WELL DESERVED VICTORY

A terrific team performance with huge contributions from each player and none more so than Tom Ashton who finished with a personal tally of 22 points including a drop goal of “Johnny“ proportions to finish off Ruislip.

It all started off in a familiar mode as the home side very quickly went in for a converted try before the game hardly got under way. They then set about an unsettled Rochford with their big backs and forwards combining to launch a number of attacks on the visitors line.

Perhaps they were overconfident considering Rochford’s lowly position and if so that was a big mistake but they overcomplicated some moves and when an ambitious overhead pass was tried a thankful Mattie Stewart plucked it out of the air and outpaced all opposition to run the length of the field and score under the posts for Ashton to put over a simple conversion.

With the score level again and a Ruislip player yellow carded Rochford grew in stature and began to put together some fine ball play and solid defensive work. This was short lived however when Ruislip went ahead with a penalty but this was then clawed back again by an Ashton penalty.

Another Ruislip penalty gave them back the lead before Ashton struck one of his own to put them on equal terms. Ruislip’s big forwards and backs gave Rochford plenty to think about but they were more than up to the task as this has become second nature to them in this league.

Gradually the boys in black with their fast pace and speed of hand took the game to their higher placed rivals and a breakthrough came when stand off Dan Needham broke through to score. Ashton duly obliged with the conversion but Ruislip responded with another try of their own in the corner which went unconverted.

Just before half time another piece of inventive play saw second row James Needham, not to be out done by his brother, drive over for a crucial try and, once again, Tom Ashton slotted the ball through the uprights to put the score at 27–18 to the visitors at the half time break.

A feature of Rochford’s play was the control of the loose and also the lineout where they collected a vast amount of ball from their own efforts and some poor throwing from Ruislip. Ross Murphy, James Needham, George Chipper and Darren Spencer were all having massive games but they were very closely followed by so many others as well.

The second half opened at the same time as the heavens did when a cloudburst drenched everybody and made play difficult for a while and, although one might have expected it to favor the home side more in fact Rochford responded far better and Ruislip began to look rattled and gave away a number of penalties and ground.

Could Rochford hold out against a strong outfit that were determined to get back into this absorbing match ? It was nail biting stuff, especially if you were a Rochford supporter and dared to hope that this just might be the game when things could turn round for their underestimated team.

The game went into the last quarter when that little bit of Rochford magic happened. Centre Ashton somehow found space after a fine build up to slip through the Ruislip defence to dive over under the posts and had great delight in kicking the conversion.

Ruislip were now having to play catch up rugby in the wet and were looking desperate. Their efforts eventually paid off however when they went over for a converted try but it was too little too late.

Rochford now had victory within their sights and no one was going to take it away from them as they very cleverly controlled the pace of the final minutes with captain Simon Webb showing all that experience to taunt the opposition and put through clever grubber kicks to force Ruislip back to defend. It was a masterly performance from him and the rest of this young pack and how well they responded to the task at hand to guide the team to a very well deserved victory.

The icing on the cake came when the pack set up a perfect position for centre Ashton to drop the most sublime of drop goals straight through the uprights which a certain Mr.Wilkinson would have been proud of.

Great stuff lads but we now need to do it all again next week and the week after if we want to continue to stay where we deserve to be in this league.

Team: Chivers, Corbet, Berry, Murphy, Needham J, Baker, Spencer, Chipper, Webb, Stubbs, Needham D,Ashton, Allen, Stewart, Barham,
Subs: Avis, Ellis, Barnes.