South Woodham Ferrers vs. Rochford U12s, 3rd October 2010

Stefan King was doing a great job of rallying the lads for battle and it was clearly working as our boys were all pumped up for the match. On the other hand it was obvious from the start that Woodham were going to do there upmost to break our boys and take a long awaited win.

Right from the off, Woodham were committed to the breakdown, either keeping possession or turning us over. As a result of this weakness in our play, our boys had to commit to the tackles and commit they did. Alex Savill had to put the first one in stopping a committed Woodham attack. Our scrum, much better this week allowed scrum half Matt Fitz-Patrick to get the ball out to our backs to attack the Woodham defence.

Finally our break came after fly half Tom Child got the ball out to Michael shields on the wing. Michael quick footed as ever, slipped a couple of tackles and scored our first try. Tom Child converted the try putting us in front. Woodham came back at us again forcing us to defend again with ferocious tackles. Lewis Cooper refreshed from his break last week floored a Woodham player forcing a knock on. Again it was our turn to attack with Matt Dobson charging into the belly of the Woodham defence. Unfortunately we were turned over again and there we were camped on our own try line once more. By now, Woodham had brought on the formidable Emily and she proved to make all the difference, as she off loaded the ball in the tackle on to a charging Woodham player who crashed over the try line beating our scrambling defence. Their try was also converted making us level. The score gave Woodham new vigour and the fatigue in our boys was starting to show. Alex Savill broke away on the wing but he was on his own. The referees whistle signalled half time giving some needed breathing time for our lads.

Tom Finch must have been doubly desperate for the break as he was hobbling around in clear discomfort.
It emerged he was playing in borrowed boots at least two sizes to small for him! We managed to find another spare pair giving his feet some relief. I doubt he will forget them again in a hurry...

Into the second half and from the first play we knocked on giving Woodham the put in at the scrum. A lovely inside pass caught our defence sleeping giving Woodham the lead with a converted try. Following the kick off we were again under relentless pressure on our line. Matt Fitz-Patrick cleared our line with a huge kick which was well chased by our boys. We managed to level the score following a penalty against Woodham. Michael Shields got the ball on the wing and scored following an unconventional run through sloppy Woodham defence. Our new player Jack then produced a barnstorming tackle on a charging Emily who really takes some stopping. We managed to claw back the lead following great inter play between Tom Child and Ewan Hardie. It looked like Ewan was going to get over on his own but was just brought down short of the line. Tom Child, in support, took Ewan’s pop pass scoring a well worked try. Again Tom Child converted and with five minutes left all we had to do was hang on. Then disaster struck, Woodham repeated their previous try with the inside pass from the base of the scrum. They then converted levelling the score. The excellent Woodham referee then called time which on balance was a well deserved draw. All our boys got involved today and just on their effort alone deserves our praise. Unlike Woodham we had no replacements players on the bench to draw from with a few of our regulars out. In actual fact one of our missing players was watching the action from a few hundred feet up in a light aeroplane!

(A first! An aerial photo of the match - we were playing on the right hand side of the middle pitch - nice one Clive!)