Harts secure impressive Win

Old Street RFC who ply their trade in London Division 2 had a break in their league campaign and brought down a strong side to Magnolia Road in the hope of getting a good win to get their season back on track. The Harts however had other plans and decided that despite the opposition they weren’t about to rollover and managed to put together their finest display so far this season.

The Harts, who at the start of the season were beginning games at a snails pace, have managed to overcome that small issue and came flying out of the blocks with the big hard hitting pack led superbly by vice captain Warner putting pressure on the well drilled Old Streets pack, knocking them back wards in the tackle and never allowing them to settle on the ball and build momentum. Rochford were everywhere at the break down spoiling any good ball that Old Streets had and the back row of Goodliffe, Warner and Searles along with Fly Half Head were putting in some ferocious hits which never let Old Streets big runners to break the gain line. Eventually Rochford managed to turn over the ball at a ruck and once they had hands on the ball weren’t about to let it go easily. Some fantastic strong running from the forwards as well as the impressive centre partnership of Pickering and Gledhill were causing some serious problems for the Old Streets defence which led to a well worked try when impressive young second row Bacon got his hands on the ball and evaded several tackles to crash over the line to open the scoring converted by captain Chipper, Rochford 7 – 0 Old Streets.

The opening score gave the Harts the confidence that despite the oppositions reputation and the fact that they normally play in just one league below our first team the game was there for the taking. From the restart the Harts again looked to apply the pressure and turn the screw. Working deep into the Old Streets half some fine open play and running rugby from the forwards and the backs was only being denied a score by some fine defensive work. The mounting pressure eventually turned into what was the try of the day when Adam Ashton showing some individual brilliance to chip over the top of the quick and hard hitting Old Street backline, the bounce was kind and Ashton regavered the ball over the touchline to score the Harts second try of the game, again converted by Chipper, Half Time Rochford 14 – 0 Old Street.

At half time Rochford made a number of changes to the starting line up, however due to the strength in depth of the squad this by no means made any impact on how the Harts were playing. The scrum was working superbly easily securing their own ball and stealing a couple against the head Old Street just didn’t have any answer. The next score came from some excellent open forward play, a pick up from the back of a scrum 25 yards from Old Streets line led to a number of phases of play keeping the ball in the strong running forwards hands and eventually seeing Goodliffe crash over the line to put Rochford further ahead with Chipper adding the extras, Rochford 21 – 0 Old Street.

The next score once again came from some forward dominance mauling the ball some 20 yards up field before Morris managed to get his hands on the ball and went over the line under the posts which provided Chipper with an easy conversion to add the extra two points, Rochford 28 – 0 Old Street. The rest of the game continued in the same way, the pack was immense never allowing Old Street to settle turning over the ball at every occasion and allowing Head and his dangerous back line to cause problems through the midfield with some excellent lines of running which Old Street just couldn’t manage to defend. The final score of the day came after Ashton managing to create some gaps in the Old Street defence the chance to offload to impressive flanker Searles to go over the line under the posts, scrum half Chipper who had an excellent game so far with the boot as well as the control of his pack was never going to miss the conversion to make it a perfect 5 out of 5 and to present Rochford with an superb scoreline of Rochford 35 – 0 Old Street.

A very impressive victory for the boys from Magnolia Road who seem to just get better each week, the defence has been superb not conceding a single point in two consecutive games now, and the pace at which they are playing should blow most opposition off the park. Next week sees a return to league action against Westcliff II who have not lost a league game in over two seasons now, but if the Harts manage to play as they have done in recent weeks this one is going to be an excellent contest that may well just see the Harts put one over the ‘Old Enemy’