Rochford U15s vs. Diss, 2nd January 2011
The weather was cold but nowhere near as bad as it had been before Christmas, and the pitch was thankfully playable, green and not frozen. After the holiday the early start was a shock, but must have been worse for Diss, considering the distance to trave
Both teams started brightly, with some thundering tackles especially from the Diss players, most of the play in the initial 15 minutes being played between the 22 yard lines. Diss then stepped things up and started pushing Rochford slowly backward towards their own line. Rochford got an opportunity to clear their lines, when they were awarded a penalty on their ten yard line, but from a tapped penalty, an ambitious long pass across the backs went to ground, Diss were quick to sack the first Rochford player who retrieved the ball and went over to score a relatively easy try, which was converted Rochford 0 – Diss 7.
From the restart the play was less cagey, Diss more confident after scoring and Rochford looking for an opening of their own, but not really making best use of their possession and were undone by a good Diss attacking move before half time with the score Rochford 0 – Diss 14.
Diss didn’t seem to want a half time break, standing in a loose circle ready for the restart, and from the kick off caught Rochford cold with a further try Rochford 0 – Diss 19. Rochford kept playing and pushed for a try and having won a penalty around the Diss 22 yard line, worked the ball quickly to the other wing and looked odds on to score, they were however called back to retake the penalty 10 yards further forward as Diss had not retreated the required distance from the initial penalty.
From the retake Rochford had to work far harder but again succeeded in getting the ball to the opposite wing where this time Clark Pickering managed to score Rochford 5 – Diss 19. With Rochford tiring, Diss managed to score twice more, the game ending Rochford 5 – Diss 31.
Diss were a good team, and played as if they really wanted the win, with the backs closely supporting each other, Rochford seemed to not really get out of first gear, frequently struggling to get the ball quickly from the forwards to the backs, and were often to flat, with a Diss defender in their face, the minute they received the ball they had no space to use it. The view of one of the Rochford players was that Diss played very narrow, leaving lots of space out wide, however sadly Rochford only once managed to stretch the play and exploit this space.
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