A12 Trunk Road to the Sea, Eventually

With the A12 closed the boys took an indirect and often delayed trip to Clacton for their final match of the season. The late withdrawal of Reece Garstin and Henry Willis, Sean Honey’s long standing ankle problem and Laurence Higgs knee injury, left us with a bare 15.

The front row started with Daniel House at tight-head prop, Joe Mitchell at hooker and James Mowle at loose-head. Jack Cahill and Joel Parker started in the second row, Austen King started at openside flanker with Daniel Harvey at blindside and Ben Parsons at number 8. Liam Baker began at scrum-half, Louis Croll at fly-half, Reiss Sellwood and Aaron Cocks at inside and outside centre with Chris Martin and George Baker on the wings. James Berry completed the side at full-back.

With forwards playing in the backs and having no subs we awaited the whistle with some trepidation but the early response from Rochford to the Clacton kick-off settled the early nerves. Playing up hill for the first half Rochford returned the kick-off with interest and began testing the Clacton defence, looking for an opening.

Athough the forwards were making decent progress it was the backs that eventually found the opening with Aaron Cocks outpacing the Clacton defence from the half way line to open the scoring. Liam Baker added the extra two points.

Clacton began to press into the Rochford half and a high kick fell to Chris Martin five metres from the Rochford line. As the defence got into position behind him and the Clacton attackers closed down the space, he was caught inside the ten-metre line but a high tackle gave Rochford the chance to clear their lines. A perfect kick up the line from Louis Croll advanced Rochford 40 metres.

With the lineout ball secured, Rochford worked it out to the right and to Aaron Cocks who again left the defence standing and sprinted from the halfway line to touch down under the posts. Liam again was faultless with the kick.

A Clacton kick up field evaded the Rochford defenders and a wicked bounce saw it fall into the hands of a Clacton attacker who broke a tackle, slipped and slid over the line to put points on the board for the hosts.

Half-time – Clacton 5 Rochford 14

Rochford had the slope to their advantage in the second half and hoped to make it tell. And they did. A series of phases saw Rochford move into the Clacton twenty two. Moving the ball left and right to probe for a gap. With the ball on the ten metre line Liam Baker picked and went on his own and dived for the line.

From the restart Rochford moved the ball to the right and to Louis Croll who saw half a gap and went through it, beat the defence for pace and ran from his ten metre line to score Rochford’s forth. Again Liam Baker made no mistake with the extra points.

Rochford continued to press and a move down the left saw the ball make its way to Chris Martin who was tackled just yards from the line. While he was face down in the dirt Ben Parsons took the ball and drove into the corner to score Rochford’s fifth. Despite the angle on the kick Liam Baker slotted over the conversion while Chris Martin was undergoing treatment for a nose-bleed. With no subs for a blood replacement, Rochford found themselves a man down but they never let up and they made good ground back into the Clacton half. With Chris making a rapid return to the action, Rochford continued to go through the phases with the forwards taking the ball on against a big defence. Eventually it was another great bit of sniping from Ben Parsons that saw him get the ball and cut through a gap for his second, again successfully converted by Liam Baker.

By now lesser teams would have crumbled but Clacton began to push for a score and made it into the Rochford twenty-two. The ball broke loose on the Rochford side and Austen King kicked for distance, but only into the chest of a Clacton player. To his credit he closed down the space and made the tackle, keeping the defensive wall solid. Clacton did get the ball over the line twice but the Rochford defence held firm and stopped them from grounding the ball. As they pressed again George Baker was on hand to make the tackle 5 metres out but in the resulting ruck George took some damaged to his knee. With him sat on the pitch and not able to move the referee blew the final whistle.

Full time – Clacton 5 Rochford 40

This was the best all round performance the boys have played, certainly since Ben, Joel and George joined the squad. The defence was solid and the attack relentless. Unfortunately the doctors have confirmed that George has a broken knee cap, Aaron a broken nose and Daniel a suspected broken wrist. Hopefully they’ll heal quickly and we can make the most of the new fitness and conditioning coach to get them back playing as soon as possible.

Normally when you say anyone could have been the Man of the Match it’s usually just a bit of a writers flourish. But today that really was the case. Hardly a missed tackle all match, consistent pressure on the opposition and some cracking defending at the end. Add to that 6 great tries and 5 superb conversions and you really are spoilt for choice.

So the boys, given the difficulty of the decision, decided to share the award between Ben Parsons for his leadership, drive and brace of tries, Louis Croll for his orchestration of the backs, great positional kicking and blistering try, and Chris Martin for some great running, hard tackling and effective support play.

Tries
Aaron Cocks 2
Liam Baker
Louis Croll
Ben Parsons 2

Conversions
Liam Baker 5

1, James Mowle; 2, Joe Mitchell; 3, Daniel House; 4, Jack Cahill; 5, Joel Parker; 6, Daniel Harvey; 7, Austen King; 8, Ben Parsons; 9,Liam Baker; 10, Louis Croll; 11, George Baker; 12, Reiss Sellwood; 13, Aaron Cocks; 14, Chris Martin; 15, James Berry