On the Road Again

Today’s game was another away game, a long trek to Braintree for a friendly with a squad of 19, slightly depleted due to illness (Harrison) and holiday (Freddie).

We arrived before the opposition, on a beautiful un-seasonal October day, and soon found out that the opposition only had 12, so Ben West agreed to play for Braintree in the first half.

Rochford started strongly and surged into an early lead, courtesy of some excellent tries from Christian (2), Kieran, Max and Luke, and were soon 5-0 up, to make it more impressive, we then realised we were playing with 12, with Kai sitting on the subs bench, not realising that he was in the starting line-up!

Aiden made some strong runs and tackles from Fly-Half, Noah looked good in his first time playing as a Hooker, the scrums were well fought and Alex made good use of the ball from Scrum Half. Rochford continued to dominate, and went in at the break 8 tries to nil.

All the subs were rolled on at Half time, with Kai replacing Ben in the opposition line up, and Ben switching to Full Back and Kieran moving to Fly Half. Barnaby contributed well, but was struggling with his ankle, so came off.

Braintree started to get back into the game, scoring three tries in quick succession, but back came Rochford courtesy of some great runs from Scott, Connor, Jack and Man of the Match, Max, to shade the second half 5 tries to 4.

Some brave defending from Aiden resulted in him having to leave the field, but suffered no after effects.

Final try tally, Kieran 4, |Christian 3, Jack, Luke P and Max 2 each, Final score Rochford 65, Braintree 20, the game was played in good spirit and was excellently refereed

Next game back to Magnolia Road to play Barking next week.

Match report by Graham Butler