Manor welcomed Rochford Hundred to the New Wilderness this Saturday looking to improve on their poor performance against Luton the previous week. Yet again injuries and unavailability dictated team selection so much so that coach Jamie Connors donned his boots after a number of seasons out of the game through injury, taking his place on the bench and coming on for a cameo performance at the end of the game. Despite Rochford’s lowly league position, they had been competitive in all but one of their games and had on their two previous visits to Manor, gone away as the victors.

With Manor kicking off the first half, it was Rochford that settled the quickest, taking the play to Manor, running the ball whenever possible, but they were met by solid first up tackling, something that had been missing last week. Eventually Manor began to get into the game and won the first scrum of the match just inside Rochfords half. With a solid scrum, Garth Tucker broke off of the back and powered his way towards Rochfords 22, when eventually brought to ground the ball was quickly recycled to the backs who moved the ball swiftly to Blane McKie who straightened the line of attack and as he was tackled inside the 22, he passed out to the supporting Chris Jones who put on the after burners and outpaced the covering defence to score out wide. The conversion by Max Murray just drifted wide, but after 6 minutes Manor led 5-0.

Manor soon gave Rochford the opportunity to get back into the game when they didn’t deal with the kick off properly giving Rochford a scrum. From the set piece Manor were penalised for a deliberate wheel, giving the Rochford fullback a shot at goal from 35 meters out. His kick was well wide so Manor restarted with a 22 dropout. Murray took this and put in a monster kick that saw the ball bounce out of play inside Rochfords’s 22 for a lineout to the visitors. They secured their own ball only to hand it back to Manor from a clearing box kick. The ball was taken by Conor Saville, making his first start for the 1st team, he passed out to Jones who moved the ball out to Michael Eghan who took the ball back in to Rochford’s 22, breaking through three tackles before being bundled into touch. From the subsequent lineout Manor allowed Rochford’s to relieve the pressure by giving away a penalty.

Rochford made ground into Manors half, with their impressive No8 making good ground with ball in hand. Quick ruck ball inside Manors 22 saw them work an overlap and go in at the corner for their first try. With the conversion missed the scores were level at 5-5 after 15 minutes.

Manor soon had the opportunity to take the lead again from a lineout just inside their half. With the ball won and set up, Manor set off on a driving maul that took play 25 meters up field before the maul was brought down illegally. A kick to touch gave Manor another attacking lineout and with a catch and drive they moved towards Rochfords line, with the drive halted Manor fed their backline and with Jones taking the ball at pace he was stopped just short of the line, here Rochford transgressed at the ruck giving Murray a difficult penalty kick, which was successful giving Manor the lead 8-3 after 21 minutes.

Manor were now in the ascendency winning the forward battle with a level of aggression not match by their opponents thus starving the potentially dangerous Rochford backline of any quality ball. Again Manor attacked Rochford’s 22 with direct hard running, eventually winning a lineout. Here Dan Johnson won clean ball but was brought down illegally giving Murray another opportunity to increase the lead with a penalty 25 meters out. A well struck kick saw the score move onto 11-5.

Rochford now enjoyed a period pressure inside Manors half, moving into the 22 with their hard running inside centre proving difficult to stop. Even so Rochford were unable break through Manors defence, eventually turning the ball over allowing Jones to clear the ball into Rochfords half where Manor eventually won a lineout. From here Manor attacked at pace with Eghan and Ben Thomas causing Rochford’s defence all sort of problems. Eventually Manor won a scrum 20 meters out from Rochford’s line. Manor got the nudge on allowing Tucker to pick up and drive forward, he broke through three tackles and just when he looked to have been stopped close to the line, he powered through another tackle to put the ball down on the line and score Manors second try. With the conversion successful Manor now led 18-5 with the first half drawing to a close.

Still there was time for either side to score. Rochford worked their way into Manors half where they were awarded a penalty for Manor coming in at the side of a ruck. The kick fell short allowing Manor to re-start from a 22 dropout. Afert a short period of play a scrum was awarded to Rochford just outside Manors 22. Here Manor turned the ball over allowing them to launch a flowing attack, Murray made an initial break before feeding Thomas who made 45 meters before feeding the supporting David Hanna, he took the ball forward into the 22 then feed McKie who crashed over the line from 15 meters out, with two Rochford players on him, who managed to stop him grounding the ball and Manor were awarded a 5 meter scrum. From the scrum McKie again crashed over the line only to be held up again by excellent defending. From the subsequent scrum Rochford managed to spoil Manors possession and clear the ball up field and into touch with the last play of the half.

Manor had been the dominant team in the first half and now needed to press on and secure the victory, hopefully with a try scoring bonus point.

Manor continued the second half, where they had left off the first, taking the game to Rochford, attacking through hard driving runs from the forwards with Johnson prominent and fast paced attacks through their backline causing Rochford all sort of problems. It wasn’t long before Manor scored their third try. With good inter passing between Jones and Eghan the ball found its way to Thomas who again created problems for the defence as he took the ball into Rochfords 22 and just when he looked to have been stopped he passed the ball out the back of his hand to the supporting Tucker who outpaced the defenders to go over the try line, only to be faced by a dim-witted photographer!!!!! standing in the wrong place inside the dead ball area, luckily for me, sorry I mean the dim-witted photographer, Tucker managed to ground the ball down to score. With the conversion missed Manor had extended their lead to 23-5 with 5 minutes of the second half played.

Rochford hadn’t given up the game and came back at Manor working their way into Manor’s 22 where a ruck was set up 15 meters out. Here Rochford’s scrum half noticed that Manor’s defensive guards were not in place so he picked up and darted through the gap for Rochford’s second try. With the conversion good, Rochford had closed the gap to 23-12.
Straight from the kick off Manor pressurised Rochford into a mistake and won a scrum in the middle of the park. With Tucker driving forward Rochford gave away a penalty in front of their posts which Murray converted, 28-12 to Manor with a little under 10 minutes of the second half played.

Manor continued to be the dominant side with Nick Horton bossing the play and keeping the visitors on their toes with a number of darting runs, although poor handling and penalties stopped Manor from increasing their lead. Rochford eventually worked their way forward with another powerful run from their No8, eventually winning a lineout just inside their own half. Manor competed on the throw with Hanna stealing the ball and knocking it back to Alfie Hutcherson who took the ball on powerfully before setting the ball up for McKie to continue the drive forward. The ball was fed back to Jones who put in a cleaver grubber kick, turning the defence and just seeing the ball roll into touch inside the Rochford 22 before it could be gathered by a Manor player.

Rochford were having difficulty in getting outside their own half, and to their credit they were still trying to play attractive rugby, running the ball whenever they could, only to be met by a solid defensive wall. They were also struggling at the set piece with their scrum under pressure and their lineout miss-firing as Manor competed on every put in. From one lineout inside their half the pressure told on Rochford as they were unable to win clean ball with Johnson reacting the quickest and pouncing on the loose ball, he then powerfully drove the ball on with the rest of the forwards in support, quick ball was released to the backs where Murray darted through a gap in the defence and passed out to Thomas who again made ground before passing to the supporting John Robinson. He in turn took the ball forward into Rochford’s 22, proving difficult to stop. When eventually brought down 5 meters short he popped the ball to the supping Hutcherson who crashed over for his first try for Manor, and Manor’s try scoring bonus point on the day. The difficult conversion was missed but Manor had now secured a five point victory as there was only 6 minutes left to play and the points difference was too much for Rochford to close.

For the remainder of the match, try as they could, Rochford were unable to get another score and Manor were still causing them plenty of problems as Manor’s forwards continued to drive at the visitors and were more aggressive at the breakdown. Manor still pushed for another score winning a penalty and kicking to touch for an attacking lineout inside Rochford’s 22. A catch and drive was well defended by Rochford but they couldn’t stop Manor unleashing their dangerous backline for one last attack on the Rochford line. Again the attack was well defended and the move broke down allowing Rochford to kick up field and into touch for the final play of the match.

In the end Manor had won quite comfortably against a spirited Rochford side who had made Manor work for each of their scores. Manor’s forwards had laid the foundation for the victory with an aggressive display of powerful rugby. This meant that Rochford’s dangerous backline had very little ball to work with, but on the other hand Manors backs were able to use quick clean ball to launch well structured attacks, causing the visitors all sorts of problems when trying to defend. The performance was pleasing after last week’s dismal display but Manor now face a series of stern tests in the coming weeks against teams who are at the top of the league. Hopefully with player availability improving Manor will be able to tackle these tests head on with the first being next week away at Diss.