Rochford U9s vs. Southend, 14 February 2010

This was a well matched game from the off, with both teams rucking and mauling well. Southend were quickly 1-0 up, but almost from the restart, Chris Hastings ran through to even the scores. Good pressure from Rochford then saw Southend penned back into their half for a period, and after several phases, the ball once again came to Chris Hastings, who saw a hint of space and went for it, shrugging off a couple of tackles and touching down. So Rochford were 2-1 up at half time. Second half, and Southend upped their game a bit, quickly levelling the scores with a well worked try from line out ball.

A couple of minutes later, Rochford were penalised for playing the ball on the ground in a ruck. Once again we were too slow to organize a defensive line, and Southend quickly passed out to the wing where there were no Rochford players, and run through to score unopposed. Rochford were determined to get back into it, but despite some great running from a number of players getting over the gain line, they were being held up by Southend. Southend were then penalised for offside. Ben threw the ball to Corey, who was tackled but managed to lay the ball back at the ruck, picked up by Connor, who did a quick pass out to Chris Hastings, who then wasn't going to stop for anybody. Somehow he managed to cut through the tackles, and force his way over the line to level the scores once more. The final minute or so was mainly in midfield, with no clear cut chances, so it finished as a creditable draw.

Aside from the first half performance in the first game, some excellent rugby from Rochford, and good to see some decent rucking, though still room for improvement. Main thing to work on at training is organization, keeping the line in both defence and attack, rather than almost all swarming round the ball.

Special thanks to Callum, Jack and Spencer for donning the white shirt of Southend, as Southend had only 8 players. Rochford had 12, a record match turn out!