Sunday 28th March

Both teams were in action yesterday with the U15's playing at Beckenham and the U18's at home to Saracens/Letchworth.

U15's
Rochford U15's got their league season back on track with an emphatic victory at Beckenham winning 52 - 0 After a break of 2 months since the last game and with 4 new players in the team it could be expected for them to be a bit rusty, but it did not take long for the girls to get into their stride, as Abbie Graham was able to use her speed to go over in the corner after 3 minutes. The ball was passed about well but a few handling errors led to promising moves breaking down. The Rochford defence was very good and the Beckenham attacks were stopped before the 22 was threatened and alot of the game was played in the middle third of the pitch.

Abbie Graham was the main danger in the first half when she finished off moves with her pace and scored 2 further tries under the posts which Maddie converted. Abbie G also made another fine break which resulted in a try for Abbie C under the posts as a reward for good support work. Maddie again converted. Rochford continued to press and the forwards then got into the act when they dove a maul 25 metres to the Beckenham line. The ball was recycled and sent to new girl Lia to pounce on the ball and score under the posts on her debut and leave Maddie another straight forward conversion. The half ended with the score 31- 0.

A few positional changes were made at half time and new girl Charlotte was moved to scrum half from the wing and did well feeding the backs with the ball. Bianca was moved from full back to centre and was given the opportunity to show her strength and speed and she also scored 3 tries in the second half finishing off some good handling moves, with Maddie adding the conversions. Beckenham never gave up and continued to take the game to Rochford in the forwards and won numerous turnovers when our girls took the ball into contact, so some work is needed on ball retention in the coming weeks. Hannah, another new recruit, had a fine first game in the forwards using her size and speed to good effect and passing the ball well. Eni had a quiet first game on the wing but gained in confidence and became more involved as the game progressed.

Overall a good performance against a team that were better than the scoreline suggests

Match Report Courtesy of Peter Cook

U18's
The U18's played a friendly against a combined Saracens and Letchworth team who included a number of Regional players in their team.
From the off the Rochford girls took the game to their opponents and were rewarded with one of their quickest tries this season when India broke through to go over within the first 2 minutes.5-0
Some strong running from India and Ellie in the centre soon carved another opening and a quick ball was fed out to Emma on the wing who ran in try no2 which was duly converted by india.12-0
With the forwards dominating at the scrum, Jen (who won the battle of the scrum halves)was able to play quick ball out to Yaz who was distributing the ball well to the centres. One such quick ball found Ellie who broke the line and raced from half way to touch down for try number 3 17-0
As well as dominating the scrum, the forwards were dominant in the line out with Ellen and Cat lifting Megan high above the opposition to take Sams throws and lay them off quickly to Jen.
Try no 4 followed soon after when Lucie, Meg and Ellie combined to set India free to race over to make it 22-0 with her conversion 24-0.Turning round for the 2nd half the girls carried on as the finished the 1st half with India and Ellie switching passes to give India her 3rd try of the game 27-0.
With Francis back in the team for the 1st time since late October following a knee injury the forwards were back to full strength and were dominating at each breakdown.
Amy Humphries playing her 1st game for the team in the 2nd row played as though she has been playing at that position all season. (Well done Amy great performance.)
Not wanting to be outdone, Ellie soon broke through the sarries defence following some great play by Yaz and recorded her make it 32-0. No sooner had Sarries kicked the restart which was collected by yaz who spun a quick ball to Ellie to allow her to break round the outside to run in her 3rd try 37-0 which India converted to make it 39-0.
With minutes left on the clock, India completed a terrific performance by going over for her 5th try to make the final score 44-0

A great performance by all the girls.
1 Jemma Sommers
2 Amy Browne
3 Sam Smith
4 Amy Humphries
5 Cat Pugh
6 Megan Robson
7 Ellen Tysterman
8 Lucie Wood
9 Jen Mugglestone
10 Yaz Pemberton
11 Ellie Gatlin
12 India Harvey
13 Becki Hurst
14 Emma Dorrington
15 Vanessa Hull
16 Francis Hughes

Natalie

"Ex U18's Captain" Nat in her England Tracksuit.

Reports from the game are that Natalie had a good game and the feedback from the England coaches on her performance was that she did really well.

Well done Nat from all your mates at Rochford RFC

Sunday 21st March FRANCE

EnglandU20's v France U20's

Good luck to Natalie McClarnon who is starting for the U20's this weekend.
Good luck from all your old team mates and friends at Rochford.

Sunday 14th March

Last sunday saw the U18's return to club action following Regional games/ Training.
The peviously postponed game against ACT Jaguars was eagerly anticipated as being the one which could define the final league standings.
Without key players missing due to injury (or strange RFUW decisions) the girls knew they would be in for a hard fought game.
Unfortunately in the absence of a detailed match report due to the writer being somewhat preoccupied in Dublin, it falls on me to say that the Manager and coaches have reported that the girls stepped up and gave a good account of them selves and despite going behind within minutes they pushed ACT on to the back foot and came away winners 24-10.
Tries scored by Lucie(2) Megan(1) and Yasmin(1) with Yaz converting two of her kicks.

Well done girls.

Next up for the girls is a "local derby" against Saracens. We have met our friends from along the M25 on numerous accassions and each game was an entertaining affair.

East Region 21st Febuary 2010

Well done to all those Rochford girls who played their part in the excellent wins against South East and Thames Valley last weekend.

U18

East 23 ( Chloe Baker Tx2, Claire Shutler Tx1, Georgia Peedle Tx1, Emily Scott Px1, )
South East 10

East 24 (Chloe Baker Tx1, Claire Shutler Tx1, Scarlett Cooper-Wall Tx1, Alex Grant Tx1,Georgia Peedle Cx1, Emily Scott Cx1)
Thames Valley 0

U15

East 34 ( Sydney Gregson Tx2, Faye Smale Tx1, Abbie Graham Tx1, Mollie Ames Tx 1, Lotte Clapp Tx1 Abbie Maxwell Cx2)
Thames Valley 22

East 22 ( Emily Danielson Tx1, Maddie Lockwood Tx1, Abbie Graham Tx1, Lotte Clapp Tx1 Abbie Maxwell Cx1 )
South East 17

Recent Inactivity.

Its been a frustrating time since Xmas with training and games being cancelled due to the inclement weather. The latest fixture to suffer was the home league game against South Sussex Barbarians on sunday.

A few of the girls have been in action for the Regional team in the recent games against the South East and Thames Valley.
Both the U15's and the U18's started the regional campaign with straight wins in their games with Faye Smale scoring a try in her very 1st regional game for the U15's.

Club rugby again takes a back seat this coming weekend due to regional training, but fast approaching on the horizon is the Easter Tour to Yorkshire.

The U15's have been invited to play the "opener" against Darlington Mowden Park prior to the Div 1 game between Sharks and Team Northumberland.

Further details will be posted shortly.