A Game That Had Everything

After a false start last week with Wanstead unable to field a team for the match at Rochford, the Under 15s travelled the other way for their first game of the season. A strong squad of twenty four travelled with great hope for the season ahead with Luke Hudson and Jason Jones ready to make their Rochford debuts. All the hard work of pre-season behind them it was important that the boys started the season as they mean to carry on.

The front row started with Jack Stickings at tight-head prop, Joe Mitchell at hooker and Daniel House at loose-head. Jack Murphy and Jack Cahill started in the second row, Reece Garstin at openside flanker with Henry Willis at blindside and Louis Dawkins at number 8. Liam Baker began at scrum-half, Tom Harris at fly-half, Ethan Hepton started at inside centre and Joseph Cottam at outside centre with Aaron Cocks and Jacob Wright on the wings. Corey Lazell completed the side at full-back.

We knew that Wanstead were a big side so it was important that the boys put into use their recent tackling practice. Missed tackles would not go unpunished. However, straight from the kick off it was Wanstead who were put on the back foot with Rochford driving forward, controlling the rucks and Liam Baker getting quick ball into space for the backs to exploit. Pressing deeper into the Wanstead half, a great phase of passes gave Tom Harris the chance to dummy one defender, break a tackle and open the scoring for Rochford.

And so it continued from the kick off with Corey Lazell taking a clean catch and driving back towards the Wanstead half. After a number of phases the ball was secured at the ruck by Rochford and this time went left down the blindside and found Aaron Cocks on the wing who broke two tackles and out-sprinted the Wanstead defender to the line and he had time to touch down under the posts. Joseph Cottam secured the extra two points.

Rochford were relentless and this time it was Jacob Wright on the right wing who tested the pace of the Wanstead defence. A last gasp tackle stopped him but minutes later he pressed again. Putting in an audacious swerve he wrong footed the last defender and touched down in the corner. Gareth noted that in all his time as a coach, he had never seen a body swerve as good as that.

Not to be outdone the forwards decided to get in on the act and successive runs from Reece Garstin, Daniel House, Joe Mitchell and Jack Murphy eventually saw the ball reach Jack Cahill who stormed through the defence while skilfully juggling the ball. From the ruck Liam Baker sent the ball out to the left to Tom Harris, Ethan Hepton and Joseph Cottam who found Aaron Cocks who touched down in the corner for his second of the game.

An unfortunate knock saw Louis Dawkins pick up a leg injury and he was replaced by Austen King at number 8. Wanstead began to gel and eventually put together a number of phases of play inside the Rochford twenty-two that saw them get some points on the board with a try that their hard work deserved.

As if stung by the Wanstead try, Rochford went on the attack again and a trademark run from Jack Stickings saw him beat a number of tacklers, wrong foot the full back and score under the posts. Joseph Cottam made no mistake with the conversion. And with half time approaching the boys weren’t finished. A beautiful interchange of passes from the backs saw Joseph Cottam break free, outpace the defence and score the team’s sixth try of the half.

Half-time – Wanstead 5 Rochford 34

The second half started with eight changes. James Mowle came in at Loose Head, Chris Martin at Hooker, Harrison McKenna and Daniel Harvey in the Second Row and Jason Jones at Blindside Flanker. In the backs, Reiss Sellwood came on at inside centre, Luke Hudson at outside, Connor Jones on the wing.

With the boys now playing up hill and with two debutants some may have expected the team to be a little weaker, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Rochford continued to play quality total rugby.

Rochford started the second half as the first had finished, driving forward with speed and strength to split the Wanstead defence. This time it was Reiss Sellwood, popping up at centre who took the ball at speed, found the gap and burst through to score his first ever Rochford try.

With Wanstead having the slope in their favour and clearly looking more confident they pressed Rochford back into their own half. There were some cracking tackles from Luke Hudson and Jason Jones on some of the largest Wanstead players but they managed to use the momentum they had gained to secure a second try. A crunching tackle from Austen King ended with his knee getting crunched and after some minutes to check the extent of the injury he left the field to be replaced by Henry Willis.

With almost ten minutes of the half gone Reece Garstin, bursting through the Wanstead line, was tackled at head height. It clearly looked worse than it felt as Reece was straight back into the action. The same could not be said for his tackler as he was shown a yellow card and retired to the side-lines for ten minutes. From the penalty Liam Baker popped the ball to Jack Stickings who burst through the defensive line to score his second of the game. Liam secured the extra two points with a well taken conversion.

With Rochford pressing into the attacking half again, Wanstead responded by kicking for distance. A wickedly bouncing ball left Connor Jones with only Chris Martin for support. The well set ruck was no match for the number of Wanstead players that arrived and possession was lost. Wanstead put their strength to good use and a series of phases saw them force the ball over the line.

With Rochford on the attack again the ball made its way out to Connor Jones who drove for the corner. Unfortunately he checked his run to avoid one defender and was tackled out of play a couple of yards short by another denying him what would have been a well-deserved try. Gareth made a further two substitutions with Joseph Cottam coming back on at Full Back and Aaron Cocks on the wing.

With ten minutes remaining another high tackle from a Wanstead player saw their second yellow card of the match and they were back down to 14 players. Again Rochford immediately punished Wanstead and Henry Willis popped up on the wing to leave the defence in his wake and stretch the lead further with the ninth Rochford try of the match.

Another Rochford attack, this time down the left saw Aaron Cocks sprint for the line. However, misreading the lines on the pitch he dived too early and landed a metre short of the try line. The referee clearly thought he had been tackled as he ruled Aaron’s commando crawl to the line a second movement. Not to be denied his hat-trick Aaron made up for his error by beating the Wanstead defence one more time to touch down under the posts. Tom Harris secured the extra two points with the clock on red.

Full time – Wanstead 15 Rochford 58

From the moment the boys arrived it was clear that they had matured over the summer, taking themselves out to warm up without the need to be told by a coach. They were much quicker to the rucks, recycled the ball brilliantly and barely missed a tackle all game. They’ve set a high bar with this performance and need to maintain this in the months ahead.

Although there were any number of boys that could have been chosen, Reece Garstin and Jack Stickings were awarded joint Man of the Match, Reece for his hard work in defence and Jack for his attacking drive.

Tries
Tom Harris
Aaron Cocks 3
Jacob Wright
Jack Stickings 2
Joseph Cottam
Reiss Sellwood
Henry Willis

Conversions
Joseph Cottam 2
Liam Baker
Tom Harris

1, Daniel House; 2, Joe Mitchell; 3, Jack Stickings; 4, Jack Murphy; 5, Jack Cahill; 6, Henry Willis; 7, Reece Garstin; 8, Louis Dawkins; 9, Liam Baker; 10, Tom Harris; 11, Aaron Cocks; 12, Ethan Hepton; 13, Joseph Cottam; 14, Jacob Wright; 15, Corey Lazell; 16, Daniel Harvey; 17, Chris Martin; 18, Luke Hudson ; 19, Jason Jones; 20, James Mowle; 21, Reiss Sellwood; 22, Austen King; 23, Harrison McKenna ; 24, Connor Jones