Rochford U15s vs. Braintree, 3rd October 2010, Essex League 1

The weather was surprisingly good, seeming as a Braintree visit normally heralds gales and torrential rain, the Braintree coach even commented on the weather not being what they expect at Rochford. Braintree chose to play the first half into the strong wind, hoping to take advantage of it behind them in the second half, so elected to keep the ball in hand where possible, likewise Rochford, so it looked like it would be a good game of running and passing rugby.

From the kick off Rochford put Braintree under considerable pressure, but as in previous meetings Braintree proved a very difficult team to break down, strong in tackles and working hard in rucks, to keep Rochford at bay. Rochford made many surging runs forward, but all were stopped by strong Braintree tackles. The only score of the first half therefore, being a penalty about 5 yards out and close to the posts, awarded to Rochford after a five minute or so of extreme pressure close to the Braintree line, the penalty was kicked by Josh Lipscombe, giving Rochford a slim 3-0 advantage at half time.

The second half continued in much the same vein as the first, lots of Rochford pressure, then attempted breaks out of defence by Braintree, being well broken down by Rochford. About mid way through the half, more determined Rochford pressure saw a ruck, close in front of the Braintree posts, sucked in most of the defence, leaving Rochford with a four man overlap. Getting the ball from the ruck, Rochford still needed to use each of the four overlapping players for Sean Prior to force his way over the Braintree line to score the first try of the game Rochford 8 – Braintree 0. With Braintree tiring, having been under relentless pressure for most of the games and both teams making several changes, due to several players receiving knocks in tackles, Kyle Bury managed to sprint clear to score out wide R13-B0. Then with time running out Mitchell Bennett managed a further try from a strong run, to leave the final score Rochford 18 – Braintree 0.

Overall Rochford were made to work extremely hard by Braintree for the trys they did score, Rochford’s passing could have been a bit slicker, but on the plus side they did well in the scrums, winning several against the put in, and competed well in rucks and lineouts.