South Woodham Ferrers vs. Rochford U12s, 28 March 2010

Rochford made a good start and worked well as a unit to drive hard into the SWF’s defence. However, they failed to capitalise, SWF came back and Rochford were soon defending themselves. Back came Rochford but they were again repelled, and so it was SWF’s turn to attack. And so the pattern continued. Both teams seemed evenly matched but Rochford lost some of their initial drive as players tried to go alone whist other team mates looked on expectantly. However, the nil-nil score at the end of the 1st half seemed a fair reflection of the play. Time for the coach to give words of wisdom and for some fresh legs to be injected into the team.

A great push up by Rochford and over went Big Lew for a try. Conversion by Jack. The team were now rightly ignited as were the mums and dads. As expected SWF came back but Rochford held fast. Some good play by both the forwards and the backs saw us back up near SWF’s try line. The ball was passed out to Oli B who made good ground before giving the ball to Michael for him to charge through three or four of the opposition before going over for Rochford’s second try. He then capitalised on his score by converting the try himself.

With the teams so evenly matched this was it for SWF and they knew they couldn’t come back. Our boys continued to push their advantage but at the final whistle the two tries to nil was definitely a win to be proud of. A closely fought contest, with none of the “argie bargie” seen in other recent games and well refereed by Braintree. It was also pleasing to note that parents were well behaved throughout the game. This might have had something to do with all being rather subdued due to the lack of sleep the changing of the clocks had caused, but match reporter felt this point definitely worthy of mention. Indeed, as Rochford’s match reports are now able to be read by any interested internet browser, one does have to be a bit careful on what is said at all times – “loose lips sinks ships” (or even coach trips) and all that !.