Rochford U12s vs. Burnham, 24 October 2010

In actual fact, they did more than that; they impressed all of us who were watching.
With a Burnham player not showing we were left with the choice; play a man down or lend one of our players. Billy kindly made the choice for us by volunteering to make up the Burnham side-good man! As we have had some new additions to the side recently we still had a few subs. This is a great place to be after barely being able to put out a team earlier in the season.

Lewis Jones playing centre today started our push forward, driving in to the heart of the Burnham defence. Unlike so often this season, we managed to retain the ball and we were nearly over. However, the referee
put a stake in the ground by awarded a penalty to Burnham for handing off. Our boys knew then that they would have to keep their discipline if they wanted to win the game. After a few phases of play we went to the first scrum. With prop, Stefan King on vocals, the drive from our pack tore the opposition to pieces. This gave scrum half Matt Fitz-Patrick a great platform to get the ball out to the backs. A lovely passage of ball handling and drawing in the Burnham defence saw Winger Michael Shields get our first try. Fly half Jake Spivey then converted the try giving us an easily won lead. Matt Dobson then stormed into the oppositions half after the scrum, with great support from our other winger Derek. This meant we kept ball in hand which finally got into Jake Spivey’s hands who scored our second try. A third try scored by Michael Shields closely followed. This came after Jamie Camp took the ball forward from the maul which was formed after winning the lineout. Rochford looked unstoppable as our No 8 Jack Paradise drove forward after picking up the ball from another turn over. With Callum Lazell and new forward Tom protecting ball in the ruck this was a wonderful display of forward work.

In to the second half and Burnham showed that they were not going to go down without a fight by scoring the opening try after good pressure from their big forwards. However, our lads sniffed victory and from the kick off our boys chased the ball down with Freddie and Stefan leading the charge. Desperate defence on the Burnham try line saw the Burnham boys hastily passing the ball out to the other wing, which eventually found Michael Shields after turn over. Michael then tracked all the way back over to his opposite wing and scored his third try.
The fourth try came after more indecision by Burnham who found themselves once more camped on their own try line. Matt Fitz-Patrick ripped the ball out of a Burnham players hands and placed the ball down. We were now on for a certain win. The Rochford boys weren’t finished though as Tom Finch got the ball in hand and powered into the Burnham defence. The ball was recycled to Michael who off loaded the ball to Ewan Hardie, who had been tackling like a demon all game. Ewan then showed great balance by weaving his way forward, beating
several Burnham players and scoring a well deserved 6th try for Rochford.

Scrum time again and with Owen Jones taking over as hooker, helped do a great job in the front row with a drive that saw a penalty against Rochford, after driving Burnham a couple of meters over the ball. This didn’t help Burnham though as Matt Fitz-Patrick passed the ball out from the base of the scrum to Jake Spivey who scored our last try down the blind side. Jake finished up the game after successfully completing his 7th conversion, signalling the end of the match with the Burnham coach throwing in the towel.

Take note folks, Burnham came to play and were a big side with load’s of heart. Today though saw probably our most accomplished performance of the season. Our entire team played with heart and skill. I think all of us on the side lines today were proud of our lads. Well done Rochford, let’s build on this success and put the last few weeks behind us!