Woodford vs. Rochford U10s, 27th November 2011

There was plenty to shout about as there were 4 tries in less than 5 minutes!

The tall boy from Woodford charged towards our try line from the kick off. We stopped him eventually but Woodford scored from the penalty we had conceded. 1-0.

Not to be outdone, Rochford scored immediately from the restart, Fraser running through their defence 1-1. Woodford scored again following a small amount of pressure (not much of a struggle!). 2-1.

Not to be outdone (again), Rochford scored again immediately with Henry running through their defence using the same pathway that Fraser had made. 2-2. Woodford then scored two similar tries. One in each corner of our try area, by passing all the way down their line of backs. 4-2

As we know, Rochford never quit and they finished the half strongly with lots of argy bargy, tussling, rucking and ripping. Declan and Charlie were involved in a particularly nice ruck. This lovely attacking play was interrupted by a 'ghost whistle'. This led Rochford to hesitate and lose the ball to a charging Woodford player. Only a last gasp 'body blocking' tackle on our line from Dominic prevented another try.
Moments later the half time whistle blew to Woodford's relief (!) with Fraser, Henry, Charlie and Lawrence terrorising the Woodford defence. The ref blew up with play 5 yards from the Woodford try line.

Second Half

Ben was feeling better so he rejoined the battle. Haidyn almost scored from the start with a menacing run, with Charlie in close support we won a penalty 5 yards off their try line. Fraser almost scored from the penalty and Woodford were very very very lucky to survive the Rochford pressure. The tall boy (him again) broke through to score running the length of the pitch (less than 12 strides for him!) 5-2.

Clearly Grace was so not impressed. From the passing that came from our restart Grace ' ran around the Woodford defence for a lovely try (the smile said 'two can play at that game tall boy!') 5-3. Woodford scored again shortly after the restart to make it 6-3 but not before Charlie demonstrated the new 'sit down and ruck with me if you fancy your chances' technique. (Sitting astride one Woodford victim he successfully held back another standing Woodford player).

Rochford applied lots of pressure, forcing Woodford into handling errors but Woodford won a scrum and managed to pass along their backs for another try 7-3.

In the final moments Grace had the last 'word' with tall boy, inflicting a lovely tackle on him as he attempted to break through for more personal glory.

The boys came off a little battered and bruised but still smiling!