There was lovely open play, including nice rucking which led to a line out. Ricardo and Charlie made some great tackles but Braintree broke through and scored 1-0.

Rochford kicked off with brave running and involvement from all the players including some lovely passing along the backs line, Declan, Ricardo, Grace, Fraser, Lawrence and Dominic all involved. The ball broke to Henry who looked up and darted down the line (he had the look of a rioter with a pair of trainers under his arm!) to score 1-1.

Braintree applied pressure from the restart and scored despite an amazing tackle from Ricardo on this giant Braintree player. 2-1.
In this period Rochford were back to being organised and disciplined, they committed to tackles with courage and tenacity even though they must have been feeling puffed out. (That’s what my notes say).

Second Half or 'Second Game'

Braintree brought on four much fresher players at half time. So Rochford were not exactly playing against the same team as 3 minutes before!
Braintree scored immediately from the kick off as Rochford seemed to hesitate. The touch line supporters' verdict was that they had the sun in their eyes, they were playing uphill and there was a nasty cross-wind building up. 1-0 (or 3-1).

Braintree scored a couple from open play. The final try coming when Ben was lying 'spread eagled' and his team mates were understandably not concentrating on the Braintree players. 4-0 (or 6-1).

Ben did not get up off the floor to cheer the Braintree players at the end so it was clear that something was wrong. Eventually he went to Hospital by ambulance to have his neck injury checked out. He was discharged later Sunday evening so hopefully he will be quickly on the mend.

Likewise Louis took a knock in training and we all wish him a speedy recovery too. Apologies if I have missed anyone else off the sick list, I believe we had a few absences at training due to injury/illness.

Finally.

The last few minutes of the Braintree match were frustrating but excellent. Frustrating to see a few trys go over the line when the Rochford legs had given out. But excellent as there were tackles going in up to the last second of the game from everyone, the team did not complain or give up even though the match was clearly lost and there was no way back.

Rochford Hundred Rugby Club

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