ROCHFORD FINISH IN STYLE

This was a fine game to finish the league season on with plenty of good fast and skilful rugby from both teams but Rochford showed their class to overcome Ignatians with some exciting stuff to please their large number of supporters.

Rochford started very well and scored two tries within 10 minutes. The first one was a well-executed one with Captain Sam Tape towering up in the line out to give a perfect ball to Dan Bracknell and then Tom Ashton. He saw the gap and sped through and flanker Tom Corbet was on hand to take the pass and run in under the posts for Ashton to convert.

The second was a forward drive over the line and a delighted Scott Horsburgh took the credit for the touchdown.

Enfield responded well coming back at the home side and a good move, catching a sluggish Rochford defence, was finished off by flanker David Gear who went over for a converted try.

Gradually it was becoming clear that when the home side moved the ball through slick hands quickly they found big gaps in the Ignatians defence.

A try by second row Greg Whight was a just reward for his sterling work in the loose and then a second try for Horsburgh both converted by Ashton took the score line to 26 points and secured a bonus point for the team.

Ignatians are not a side to take lightly and with ball in hand looked dangerous and so it was as, again, Rochford were caught napping as wing Lotanna Mbonu powered through to reduce the deficit with a converted try.

The last word in the first half in the scoring stakes was Rochford’s
As Tom Ashton showed his class with an individual try and conversion to bring the score to 33 – 14 at the break.

The second half was a much closer affair as the North London outfit upped their game and the boys in black went down a gear and full advantage was taken when prop Stephen Taylor clawed back five points with a try and then centre Keir Bonnar sped through to score a converted try and suddenly Rochford were only 33 – 26 ahead.

This Rochford side however, were determined to not lose this match and Darren Spencer came to the rescue with a typical piece of aggressive and strong play to force his way over the line and for Ashton to once again add the two points.

To clinch the result I suppose it was only fitting that the team’s highest try scorer Matt Stewart should finish off proceeding with a good turn of pace and a touchdown under the posts. It was, also, only right that the side’s highest point’s scorer should slot over the final conversion and so Tom Ashton duly did.

There were a number of further scoring chances that were missed during the game and the score line could have been higher but this was a difficult match and the boys were desperate to finish strongly which in the end to their credit they did.

So ends a reasonably successful season finishing a very strong third with our nearest rival Chelmsford 19 points below us.

With 20 bonus points in the bag there was no team better than us in that department and we played some tremendous rugby in getting those points.

Parts of our game were sloppy on occasions and we made more basic errors than are acceptable if we want to progress next season.

The team, if certain games had gone differently, could have been in the play-off position and looking for promotion but it is generally agreed that as a team we are not quite ready just yet and another season in this league will help Head coach George Fouche put the finishing touches to the fine work he and the boys have put in and go all out for promotion next season.