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