Match Report for Bancroft game

After last week’s trip to Harlow was aborted due to a frozen pitch, Rochford resumed Cup activities with a home match against Bancroft. The team arrived on a cold and windy Sunday morning to a field of mud, due to the heavy rain from the last few days.

Due to the U15 game not yet finished on Pitch 1, the U13’s swapped pitches with the U14’s forsaking the opportunity to play on pitch 1. After losing the toss, Rochford received the kick off from Bancroft and after a good run from Oakley, Luke P opened the scoring.

Rochford maintained the early momentum and soon increased the score courtesy of a kick through from Kieran, which was converted by Max. Christian then added a third after a good run from Barnaby. Bancroft opted to receive the restart and fortuitously Rochford further extended their lead after a bad kick from Kieran was picked up Max who then powered through. Max then broke through, passed to Luke P who made good inroads before passing to Kieran to make the score 5-0. This soon became 6-0 courtesy of Jack speeding into the corner.

Bancroft played some good rugby in the middle of the park, but could not breach the Rochford line, where it has to be said every player contributed.

Due to the state of the pitch, it was proving very difficult to drop kick to restart the game, and the ball was rapidly resembling a large bar of soap, which led to an amusing interlude whereby Max kicked the ball through on the floor but was dispossessed by the Bancroft full back who then dribbled the ball out of play.

Kyle and Harri both made great runs and this led to a try from Johnny O, before Max tackled the Bancroft full back on their own try line, which allowed the ball to squirm loose for Johnny D to touch it down. The final try of the first half was scored by Harri after a strong run from Kyle taking the score to 9-0 (45-0).

Bancroft started the second half strongly and managed to repel Rochford from adding to the score for quite a while, but Rochford kept pressing and finally Max broke through to score. Soon after, Luke C broke through to feed Kyle, who managed to score despite having two defenders hanging onto him!

Oakley then made a great drive before passing to Christian who made no mistake to score his second and Rochford’s 12th try . Kieran broke through and looked set to score but unselfishly tried to pass to Jack who was flying down the wing, but the greasy ball made the pass and catch difficult and the chance was gone.

However Rochford were not to be denied for long, with Christian setting up Johnny D to score his second try of the day, and this was followed by a second try for Luke P and then a fourth for Max, at which point the Referee called a halt to proceedings.

Great credit must go to Bancroft whose heads never dropped and continued to probe, but were unable to break through a resolute Rochford line, and continued to observe great sportsmanship. All the Rochford players contributed, making it too difficult to nominate a Man of the Match and the recent recruits have quickly become part of the Rochford family. The game was excellently referred, and after the usual end of game tunnel ritual, the players gladly went for a hot shower and traditional fare of Sausage and Chips to warm them up.

Final score Rochford 75 – Bancroft 0

Tries

Max (4), Luke P, Johnny D, Christian (2), Harri, Jack, Johnny O, Kyle and Kieran (1 each)