Brentwood vs Rochford U11s, 22 November 2009

After a few dissenting voices, the major­ity vote prevailed for a second game. Even though we started the first half running downhill we had a similar start from the first game. We were losing the ball in the break­down and after a Brentwood player intercept­ed a Rochford pass we went on to concede a further two tries.

The second half was much better with Ben on the wing and Mathijs playing scrum half, who managed to move the ball forward. Ewan also made good ground getting under the high ball and Tom Child repeatedly got us out of trouble with the boot. Tom Finch managed to bundle a Brentwood player into touch saving us from conceding another try and with Ste­fan, Billy and Owen also being aggressive in the forward play we managed to hold our own.

However, with only half of the boys playing and the other half sleeping, it was hard work for the lads. We gave away a lot of penalties due to high tackles but we did manage to stop them from scoring in the second half. Rochford finally found sanctuary with the whistle finishing a miserable day of rugby.

From previous expe­rience, Brentwood was always going to be a difficult team to beat, even on a good day. With a lot of tired Rochford boys on the pitch after a long night the previous evening made it an almost impossible task. However, the players that were awake should hold their heads up high and know that they made the difference between just being beaten and not ham­mered into submis­sion.