Rochford U11s vs. Clacton, 15th November 2009 (at Romford & Gidea Park RFC)

This seemed to give our lads the notion that they could hold onto the ball and not pass. Try line fever descended, creating many missed opportunities, particularly in the first half. There were some highlights though; including Mathijs Van Waard having a game run making good ground following a pass out from Ewan Hardie, who had just nicely sidestepped a rather large lad chasing him down. The only try of the first half came from a pass out from the base of the scrum by Matt Fitz-Patrick, which found Jake Spivey, running on to the ball at pace to get over the line.

Fortune smiled on Rochford at the start of the second half, following a slightly weighty opening Rochford kick. Harry Gibson chased the ball down, which had gone over the Clacton try line. He placed the ball down from a Clacton players hands to win a rather dubious try. However, it shows there is never a lost cause and chasing the ball was the right option.

Finally a good passage of passing play opened up by Stefan King, out to Owen Jones and on to Matt Fitz-Patrick showed, if you pass the ball you can make ground. Michael Shields got the next try after Clacton was awarded a penalty near to their try line. This pretty much summed up the Clacton performance today, as they panicked when trying to move the ball out of danger, giving Michael Shields the scoring opportunity. The next try came after Matt Fitz-Patrick first broke the Clacton defensive line getting the ball out to Tom Child, who darted around the remaining Clacton defence.

Harry Gibson then got his second try of the day after a tackled Clacton boy knocked the ball on, allowing him to pick the ball up and get over the line.

In the end then an easy win for Rochford. However, not the play from the previous match weekend. If we hang on to ball like we did against Clacton, we will come unstuck against a more disciplined side.