Basildon vs. Rochford U9s, 17 January 2010

After the hard and close fought first game, Rochford lost the plot a bit for the first half of this game.

Basildon, although not playing very differently, were finding large holes in Rochford's defence, and bursting through towards the try line. Rochford's tackling and cover wasn't as good as it can be, and so Basildon seemed to be scoring whenever they wanted. The first half finished with Rochford 5-0 down, and facing a drubbing if they continued playing the same way.

However, a half time pep talk from Phil seemed to do the trick, and things were much tighter in the second half, with tackling and mauling greatly improved, so it was very much the same story as the first game, a close midfield battle. Few clear chances for either side.

I think the boys were starting to feel the effects of no games for 6 weeks, and when Rochford did manage to break though, the alert Basildon defence always managed to catch them. Rochford kept Basildon out til literally the last move of the game, when good pressure at a maul from Basildon saw one of their players dive over the line to make the final score 6-0.

Lessons from these games. Rucking was almost completely absent (from both sides), so again needs some work, and once again, we have to look to pass out of the tackle to make space for our attack.