For the last game of 2016 Rochford Hundred 2nd XV travelled to Thurrock on what was a dreary foggy day. Boosting a good squad and full bench, Rochford met a determined Thurrock side who were in no mood to end their own good run before the Christmas break.

Thurrock started the brighter using there powerful pack to gain advantage and their lively backs were causing Rochford problems all afternoon, and within the first 5 minutes Thurrock managed to break the defensive line and opened the scoring with a converted try. Thurrock 7 – 0 Rochford.

The teams were evenly matched through out however Rochford began to take control of the game for the remainder of the first half, winning possession and good field position were unlucky not to score on two separate occasions when the referee judged the attack to be firstly held up once over the line as well as knocked on soon after, both of which looked like perfectly good tries from the side line.

Eventually pressure told and Illingworth used his power to break through the line to get Rochford on the score sheet converted by Clark, Thurrock 7 – 7 Rochford. After a couple of injuries to Rochford they had to shuffle their back line on a couple of occasions firstly losing Huckett to a nasty knee injury and then followed by Spencer who was the danger man in attack through a groin injury, being replaced by Nick Brown and Owen Watkins respectively.

Brown showing why Rochford had missed him this season managed a couple of good jinking runs and he himself made his own try breaking through the defence and put Rochford in the lead, Thurrock 7 – 12 Rochford.

It was Thurrock who had the last say of the half however as they rallied managed to get deep into the Rochford half then some excellent play by their back line saw Rochford old boy Levy spilt the defence for a converted try which handed back the lead to Thurrock at halftime.

Half Time Thurrock 14 – 12 Rochford

The second half was end to end but neither side could break the line, Thurrock suffering from some ill discipline had 2 in the bin on separate occasions but with Rochford suffering a number of other injuries ended up fairly disjointed and could not grab a hold of the game.

With the light fading and the fog getting heavier both teams played out an excellent half of Rugby but little to add to the score line just a penalty from Thurrock which secured them a good victory and left Rochford a little disappointed heading into Christmas however they knew they had played well and on another day could have been a very different story.

With the likes of the returning Mott and Brown for their first games of the season adding to the already improving squad as long as the Harts can keep injury free it looks all set up for a cracking second half of the season.

Merry Christmas to all.. see you in January

Rochford Hundred Rugby Club

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