Rochford U7s vs. Braintree, Westcliff Festival 11 April 2010

The onslaught was immediate, this Braintree team were good, but Rochford’s heads dropped almost immediately. Braintree’s skills when running with the ball were only part of the equation as 3 forward passes from Rochford were punished with tries as a consequence. With the score 5-0 at half time it was not looking good.

Steve’s half time talk focussed on trying to enjoy the game – Until this game Rochford had played well and needed to regain some of that winning spirit, even in adversity they should not just roll over. With this in mind Rochford restarted and an immediate try by Dalton got them off the mark. Further strong attacks by Braintree made the score line increase more in their favour but Rochford gave them a fight and played with some heart resulting in more tries by Dalton and Milo. This was illustrated by the second half scoring (Rochford 4 Braintree 5) – a much better effort.

Final score 10-4 to Braintree.

Summary
All in all a good effort in your first festival. I think today’s lesson is that although Steve has taught you many Rugby skills this year that you have learned and applied well, these will not always win you games unless you believe in your minds that you can and will win, whomever you are playing, and whatever the score line is.

Well done today and look forward to Braintree.