Brentwood vs Rochford U11s, 22 November 2009

Today we watched our boys get their first loss of the season. Perhaps we could blame the steep slope of the Brentwood pitch in the first half? Perhaps we could blame the referee? No, not today, if we looked to ourselves we would have the answer. Brentwood was clearly the better team today. In the first half we were beaten in the scrum, we were beaten in the line out and more than ever we were exposed in the breakdown. We watched as Brentwood inflicted fifteen minutes of misery on our brave lads as they racked up 21 unanswered points.

Into the second half and things picked up a little. Rochford at least began competing for the ball. Jamie managed a clearing kick and all of a sudden Michael and Tom Child passed the ball back and forth between them and finally Tom Child was over. This galvanised the team and all of a sudden things seemed to be opening up. Matt Fitz-Patrick was good under the high ball and Stefan, running downhill, was crashing into Brentwood players with ball in hand. It was this play that saw us get our second try. Stefan off loaded the ball in the tackle, after committing Brentwood players. He got the ball out to Harry on the wing, who then turned on the speed and over he went. However, this renewed vigour came all too late leaving our boys racing the clock...a race they unfortunately lost.