On a warm, sunny afternoon and In a fast and, sometimes, frantic encounter Rochford came away with maximum points but, again, allowed their pacey opponents a winning chance in the final minutes.

Taking into account the difficult week and selection changes the team played very well when it was needed and used the power of their forward drives to win the game.

Old Cooperians started at a very fast pace and took an early lead with a converted try before Rochford could settle into any rhythm.

The game became more than a little frantic and a yellow card was dished out to Brett Smith. This was the first of five yellow cards (two for Rochford and three to Cooperians) shown in this hectic match.

At this stage it was all Cooperians who dominated play but gradually Rochford managed to get their hands on the ball and impressive centre Gavin Tusini showed his class to storm over for a try and reduce the deficit.

After a shaky beginning Rochford’s set scrum dug in and provided solid ball for scrum half Brett Smith and stand-off Matt Stewart to get the back line moving and Rochford’s lineout was far more effective this week with Sam Tape and Ross Murphy providing good ball to launch attacks.

Rochford started to use their driving maul to advantage creating momentum and Brett Smith, who enjoys these occasions, was on hand to take the ball and powered and weaved through for a well-deserved try.

Smith has become an important part of the set up and his influence has brought more of an edge to Rochford’s play and is leading try scorer with 12 tries to his credit.

Stewart added the extra two points and soon after slotted over a penalty kick to take Rochford to 15-7 at the half time break.

The combination of Tape and Josh Illingworth in the second row seemed to work well.

The shuffling of the front row with young Jack Clarke coming in at prop, who adjusted well in his first team debut, and Michael Mark moving to hooker and with Ricky Wiseman on the other side began to settle in and in spite of losing a couple of strikes against the head put pressure on the big Old boys pack to good effect.

The second half was mostly to the home side’s advantage as their pressure began to show and Cooperians fell foul of the referee’s whistle as they gave away territory and, in due course, yellow cards which disrupted their play.

Rochford made them pay for it and another driving maul resulted in the excellent Sam Tape diving through to score a fine try and increased their lead to 20 -7.

Further good attacking play allowed Rochford to move the ball wide and wing Sam Edwards speed over to finish off an exciting move and provide the extra try bonus point.

The back row of Tom Corbet, Ross Murphy and Darren Spencer were prominent all over the field credit in part to the tight forwards to give that platform and in the backs Matthew White, Stewart, Edwards, Michael Stemp and particularly Gavin Tusini all had good games. Jon Baker at full back made a number of penetrating runs and tackled everything in sight.

At 25 -7 and only fifteen minutes to go the home team should have been out of sight but some slack play and taking the foot off the peddle saw the Upminster side fight back to score two late tries ,both of which were converted, to bring them to 25 -21 .

Rochford, however, on this occasion held out to gain a well-deserved victory.