ROCHFORD’S WINNING RUN ENDS WITH LAST GASP NORWICH TRY

A deflated Rochford, who had lead for the majority of this tense encounter, were denied victory when Norwich launched a last, desperate attack out wide and were rewarded as they broke through to dive over in the corner.

The conversion was missed but the referee blew the final whistle and the delighted Norfolk side celebrated their win.

It was one of those games that could have go either way but it was a cruel blow to a much improved Rochford who had shown class and aggression and thought they had just about done enough to claim the result.

Rochford started at a pace and went ahead with an Adam Ashton penalty kick but Norwich fought back and pressure resulted in their full back running over for a try.

The home team were not allowing the pacey Norwich backs room to open up as they tackled like demons as Norwich always looked dangerous with ball in hand.

The set scrums were fairly even but Rochford had the upper hand in the lineout exchanges where they were picking up loose Norwich ball as well as securing good ball themselves thanks to Greg Whight, Ross Murphy and Scott Horsburgh.

Norwich launched an attacking move but a swift interception from Sam Edwards saw him run half the length of the pitch to score under the posts and Ashton duly converted.

Later in the half more Rochford pressure paid dividends when Young winger Matthew White finished off a good move for a well taken try to put his side 15-5 up at the break.

The second half was fought mostly in the Rochford half where ferocious Rochford tackling kept the fast flowing Norwich backs at bay until they eventually found enough space to go in for a try to reduce the score to 15 – 10.

Both sides went at each other at full throttle which lead to a great deal of turned over ball but the Rochford forwards seemed to get the better of things up front with some of their trade mark driving mauls but were not able to break the Norwich defence.

Norwich clawed back three more points with a penalty kick and with the score line at 15 – 13 to the home side the game was on a knife edge.

Norwich kept looking for the gap but Rochford denied them that where impressive full back Jon Baker was putting in some strong tackling and looked very sharp.

Another player who was very impressive was Darren Spencer making deep, powerful runs all afternoon and tackling everything in sight.

All the team raised their game from previous weeks with good performances from a number of players including Tom Corbet, Harry Brooker, Greg White and others but Spencer was simply outstanding.

The game continued to become more tense and a few fractious incidents spoilt play but Rochford remained in front going into the last few seconds before their luck ran out and their winning streak came to an abrupt end.

Campion away next week and another stern test for the team.