Rochford Hundred 17-22 Henley Hawks 

By Nigel Dudding

Henley made it four straight wins in a row with a convincing, if scrappy victory, against a Rochford Hundred side who are fighting a tough relegation battle. It was obvious from the start that Rochford were highly motivated for this game and challenged Henley at every opportunity to gain possession and put the visitors off their stride and continuity.

The pitch was quite heavy after the previous days deluge and keeping a footing was difficult and consequently there were numerous resets in the scrums. Henley started brightly forcing Rochford to defend their line from the start but despite numerous close quarter pick and goes the home side held firm and were able to effectively clear their lines and reduce the home supporters nerves.

Indeed from a loose kick ahead, Rochford took the lead when their hard running centre managed to break the visitors defensive line and score close to the posts after only ten minutes. The conversion was a formality and clearly Henley had a tough assignment on their hands.

However, to their credit Henley were able to arrest the initiative back and from some close quarter punishing drives Rory Mason was able to level the scores with a well taken try again close to the posts and Max Titchener was able to level the scores after 25 minutes. At this point the visitors should really have moved further ahead but a number of promising attacking opportunities were lost through poor execution or wrong options.

This seemed to give the home side some confidence and with a number of quickly recycled phases were able to move the ball wide and with the Henley defence caught narrow were able to score out wide for a five point lead at half time.

Clearly Henley needed to score first in the second half and this they duly did with a trade mark catch and drive from an attacking lineout. Rochford illegally collapsed the maul over their own line and the referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty try and Henley were in front for the first time. At this stage the home side suffered from a good deal of indiscipline and further yellow cards were given which obviously upset their rhythm. Henley continued to dominate possession and territory but were unable to add to the scoreline until Morgan MacRae was on the receiving end of some excellent phase plays and the youngster crossed wide out for his nineth try of the season.

As the game started to break up Henley went in search of the bonus point try but decided to kick a penalty to take the scoreline beyond one score. Despite how hard they tried the final try proved difficult the achieve through some stout defence and unfortunate decision making.

As the game dragged into injury time Rochford had one last desperate attempt to gain a losing bonus point which might prove crucial in their survival. This they managed with the final play of the game to score wide out but ultimately the conversion failed and the referee blew for full time.

Whilst a win away from home is always pleasing it was a pity that Henley did not take all the chances that they created, nevertheless playing against a side who were fighting for their National League survival was not going to be easy so the verdict was a satisfactory performance. There were some excellent performances from man of the match Ben Harrison, Tom Vooght once again was key in the loose play and Morgan MacRae continues to impress with his all-round rugby ability. Henley will now be looking to add to their tally next week against Canterbury which will be their last home game of the season.

Henley:

Wood, Norville, Flynn, Titchener, Cookland, Fenley, Mason, Macrae, Frostick, Ellaboudy, Harrison, Lowe, Bradley, Vooght. Subs: Sichel, Manning, White, Hakimian, Crow

Match photos courtesy of Russ Shepherd available here.