Rochford U12s vs. Basildon, 14 October 2012

You can guarantee a tough, physical fixture against our near neighbours but always played in the right spirit so it was pleasure to welcome Dusty and his team to Rochford.

Those of you who have been following this squad through the minis will remember our perennial problem with numbers, so you can imagine the delight when 20 players turned up wanting some game time.

No fewer than 10 players were making their debuts, with Jacob Wright and Jack Cahill having joined our summer training sessions and; Austin King, Alfie Chatfield, Callum Stanley, Thomas King, Harrison McKenna and Callum Charalambous joining at the beginning of the season. Daniel Harvey and Ethan Hepton had only taken part in their first training session the day before.

So it was vital that we made the most of our more experienced players although it’s easy to forget that some of those only began playing last March. So it was down to Reece Garstin at inside centre to lead the backs with Jacob Lipscombe at fly half and Christopher Martin at full back. Spencer Crowhurst, Corey Lazell and James Mowle added a bit of experience in the scrum which had a number 8 added for the first time.

As expected Basildon were well drilled with some big powerful lads in the centre and they intended to use them so it was down to Rochford to get the tackles in low and stop them. Rochford tackled like demons and clearly having remembered Gareth’s advice that if they “won the rucks they would win the game”, supported the ball carrier well. A little more time and practice and the team will be a powerhouse in the ruck and will be able to recycle the ball more smoothly.

A bit of a change round saw Joe Mitchell move to scrum half, Grace Wright move to the wing, Brandon Smith at outside centre and Harry O’Malley join the second row. Despite the Basildon Pack being physically bigger, the Rochford scrum began to hold its own, with only the Basildon scrum half disrupting the smooth transition to the backs.
Rochford slowly began to assert themselves and the attacks began to be more frequent but Basildon, making the most of a couple of bigger players and one particularly fast boy began to break tackles and score.

Not letting their heads drop Rochford attacked again and saw some great play around the scrum from Joe Mitchell and some good runs from Austin King. A little more awareness of teammates and better communication will see these become more effective.

A mazy run from Callum Stanley was halted just yards from the line after a deft sidestep had taken him past the Basildon winger. On the other wing Grace Wright was making the most of her chances though getting the ball to her earlier would have allowed her to exploit her pace to greater effect.

In defence the tackles improved especially from Thomas King at full back, a performance that quite rightly earned him the man of the match award and the Basildon attacks became less effective and less frequent.

A good performance from a very inexperienced squad, but with some hard work and applying Gareth’s words of wisdom, it won’t be long before Basildon find themselves on the other end of the result.