BELOW PAR ROCHFORD ROMP HOME

I suppose a sign of a good side is even when they are not at their best they can still get a good result.

This was certainly the case in this game as the home side scored 10 tries to their opponents two but knew they were not performing as a constructive unit and played a rather sloppy game with too many errors.

Stowmarket, especially up front, showed they had fire and commitment but lacked a credible defence which opened up quite easily whenever Rochford ran at them.

Full back Sam Edwards started the try feast virtually from the start when he ran through for the first of his two tries and which Tom Ashton duly converted.

Almost straight away Stowmarket came back strongly and gained a penalty which they turned into three points.

Rochford found it hard going in the set scrum where the Suffolk team out scrummaged them for most of the first half before they sorted out the problems and had far the better of a tiring Stowmarket in the second half.

The ball supply for both sides was transient as they won and then lost hard earnt ball but every time Rochford did hold on to it and attacked they caused all sorts of problems for the visitor’s fragile defence.

Next up was centre Matt Stewart who ran over for a try and shortly after broke away again to score another but as they were both wide out Ashton just failed to convert either although one kick hit the upright but bounced off outside the posts.

Ashton made up for it with a well hit penalty kick but just before the break Stowmarket did go over for an unconverted try and after a disjointed session Rochford found themselves 20 - 8 up.

The second half was really all Rochford as they started to get their act together and ply some lovely flowing rugby.This resulted in 7 tries with Stewart scoring a further 2 tries and Michael Stemp, Sam Edwards, Andy Baker, Greg Whight and Scott Horsburgh all going over to score and Tom Ashton converting six of them.

To Stowmarket’s credit they never gave up and kept playing rugby although they must have been demoralised and certainly tired but their efforts were rewarded with a try late in the game but by then the game had run away from them.

An interesting match with a fair amount of poor play but also some thrilling running rugby which the boys must continue with against their next opponents Braintree at home on Saturday.