The Under 13’s resumed their league campaign at Maldon, at an unusual start time of 12:30 at a wet Drapers Lane ground, which had a huge puddle obstructing the entrance to the ground.

Despite the late start, the match was preceded by an immaculately observed silence for Remembrance Sunday.
Both teams started strongly, with no quarter being given, attacking the opposition try lines to no avail during the early exchanges. However after several probing runs at the heart of the Rochford defence, Maldon finally broke the deadlock to take a 5-0 lead. Despite some good interplay between the Rochford backs ending with Harrison aiming for the corner and the Luke P powering through, they couldn’t quite get over the line. The balance of play switched and then Maldon scored two more tries to lead 15-0.

Rochford then realised that their best chance was to attack the space outside the Maldon wingers and then pulled a try back after a good run from Kieran, before laying off to Harrison to go over in the corner. Luke P then attacked the line and burst through to pull another try back; so at the half time break Maldon were leading 15-10.

Russ decided against bringing on the subs at the interval, so as not to disrupt the momentum the boys had built up, and his decision was justified when Rochford recovered the ball and fed Jack, who powered down the wing to level the scores.

Maldon were still competing strongly, particularly at the rucks and scrums and were able to break through to retake the lead.
Rochford then took the opportunity to bring on the fresh legs of Oakley and Freddie replacing Jack and Harrison on the wings, Scott for Connor, who gave a typically powerful performance in the front row and Ben coming on as Full Back with Kieran moving up to Fly Half. The subs were soon in the action and all made important tackles to prevent Maldon extending their lead.

Luca, Barnaby and Max continued to lead from the front in the centre of the pitch and gave Maldon no space, Kieran now in the advance position managed to pick up a loose ball, broke through and made good ground before handing off to Christian who brought the scores level again. The momentum was now back with Rochford and then Kieran found some space on the wing and evaded the Maldon line to allow Rochford to lead for the first time in the game; Maldon kept pressing but were stopped by some fantastic defence from Rochford before Luke P completed the scoring to give Rochford a hard fought win of 30-20.

A fabulous game of Rugby between two well matched teams on a fine November day after the heavy overnight rain. The boys tucked into an excellent meal provided by our hosts which was particularly enjoyed by the forward Man of the Match, Luke Coldwell ! The backs Man of the Match was Ben, who came on in the second half and made some great last ditch tackles. However every boy gave their all.
Back at home next week for a cup match against Chelmsford.

Final Score Maldon 20 – Rochford 30
Tries: Harrison, Christian, Luke Pindani (2), Jack, Kieran

Match Report by Graham Butler

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