So, a fresh and sunny morning in Braintree welcomed Rochford who have had a consistent season. There was a slight breeze and dry playing conditions on Costa del Braintree which may have led us to believe that handling would be crisp and true. In truth, handling errors peppered an otherwise very entertaining game which was hard to call right up to the final whistle.
Rochford looked well organised with solid skill sets across the forwards and backs alike. Some robust first up runners in the forwards and pace in the backs - especially out wide kept Braintree on their toes all morning. The Braintree scrum was a positive for the forwards who fronted up well vs a big visitors' pack.

Max V broke the deadlock down the left and Noah C converted to put Braintree 7-0 up. The visitors responded a few minutes later to make it 7-7, all to play for. In a keenly contested period before the break Braintree crossed again with a superb pick and go from dynamic No8 Elliot V on the blind side of a scrum 10 metres out. The home side led 12-7 at the break.
Braintree started the second half with more impetus, a flowing backs' move from halfway set Harry H free on the left who finished again with a strong run-in. Home side 17-7 up and it felt like we had a good level of control at this point.
Rochford struck back and and in a busy 5 minutes scored 3 tries (we need to mention focus and missed tackles here as a build for Weds training Braintree) to make it 17-24.

Braintree dug in, forced themselves upfield and won a penalty just outside the 22. A big decision now with less than 10 minutes on the clock, a bold decision to go for the 3 which Noah slotted beautifully to set up a nail biting finish. Braintree were backing themselves to push back up field to find the much needed score as they were still 20-24 down.
In the final couple of minutes the uncompromising Rochford defence was finally breached, a quick move down the right and assured back play released Charlie B to run in (with plenty to do) and put the homeside 25-24 up. Noah hit the post and Braintree needed to close out the last minute from the kick off.

Rochford threw everything at the home side from the kick off as expected, Braintree cleared their lines but gave away a penalty in the visitors' half which gave Richford one last opportunity. A good touch finder gave Rochford good field position and they won the resulting lineout, some stout defence and pressure from the home side forced a knock on and the final whistle blew. A very entertaining game with some high quality rugby on display - a deserved and industrious win for Braintree.

Max (1) Elliot V (1) Harry (1) Charlie (1) Noah PK Conversions (1)

By Phil Morgan