Braintree vs. Rochford U12s, 26th September 2010

Straight from a Rochford kick off a Braintree player clearly knocked the ball on under the high kick but play was allowed to continue. This continued to be an issue throughout the match. However, in this match Rochford were getting the upper hand. The break finally came when Jake Spivey broke through the Braintree defence, passed the ball out to Matt Dobson who powered through the remaining Braintree defence to score a great try. Jake Spivey then converted the try which would prove to be the difference in the final score.

The try seemed to really galvanise our boys and they were clearly up for a win. In the scrum, Tom Finch, Jamie Camp and Owen Jones were making their presence felt, perhaps a little too blatantly Tom.... Our new player Jack, also in the scrum, was showing us that he will be a real asset to the team, always competing for the ball. We almost got a second try following a great run down the wing from our other new player Derek. It would have been a fitting end as Derek also proved he was not against getting stuck in.

However, Braintree scored a try in what can only be described as a shameful piece of refereeing. First the referee reset the Rochford scrum after it was turned giving Braintree the put in. The second scrum also turned but he allowed the play to continue when he noticed a Braintree player broke away. To add insult to injury the try scorer also knocked the ball on in his efforts to place the ball down. It can only be deemed as poetic justice when Braintree missed the conversion.

So a little better from Rochford in the second match, but we really need to off load the ball more and compete in the breakdown better.