A Short Trip

Preface...
Westcliff have thumped both Thurrock and South Woodham convincingly this season ( the two teams that gave us our biggest defeats) and in discussion I think Chelmsford , Upminster ,Maldon and Westcliff are clearly the top echelon of teams that we faced this season.

The Game ...
Similarly to our game at South Woodham I didn't think we had much rub of the green today, we didn't appear to get any breaks and it felt like a long up hill battle .The game was played for long periods in our own half and an acknowledgement that we were beaten by a good side who dominated us in the scrums, turned the ball over quickly and where undoubtably the best pressing side we have come up against.

The overwhelming majority of this game was played with Westcliff in possession
and the 93 recorded tackles was indeed higher than the previous posted record v Epping last month. We managed to put in some yardage but Westcliff continually managed to get there defensive line with some very effective team work.

Our own disappointment was after Wednesday's training session on Offloads and pressing is that we really did neither in a game where there where definite positives and the knowledge that we could have done even better. We lost Nathen after a tough challenge, the spread of tackles in the team was also very inclusive today and full credit to our boys whose heads did not drop.

An interesting feature of Westcliff was like ourselves the coaches have empowered the team and may give encouragement but we didn't see x3 coaches walk up and down the pitch telling them what to do , A very rugby literate team indeed who where fast to support, ruck, maul and recycle the ball to begin another phase. That we managed to hold the ball up , defend on our 5 meter line for so long was very encouraging to see.

Westcliff were also effective in the drive, I'm aware in watching other games of theirs that this appears something of a feature. In fairness they scored a couple of quality try's and that despite us having a bare 15 to their 22 again speaks volumes to the fitness of our players.

Wednesday return to training will emphasise pressing, offloads and support play. Stanford are a similar side to ourselves but on the 23rd we face South Woodham Ferres a team we have no need to fear and with a couple of good training sessions we can up our game.

Final score: Westcliff 34-0 Rochford 100

Scrums 12-2(Westcliff Winning one against the head)
Line outs. 3-3
Penalties. 1-3
Turnover. 7-1
Yards. 1h, 265
2h, 160

Tackles .........93
Mihi. 11%
Freddie 10%
Darcie. 9%
Luke. 8%
Dalton. 8%
Brandon 7%
Kyan. 7%
Danny 7%