Rochford look for a big finish to difficult campaign

ROCHFORD Hundred secured a prized win last weekend against Canterbury that boosted their survival bid after what has been a difficult campaign for the Essex side.

Danny Cleare’s side edged it 28-26 to claim their first win in five and only their fifth this season. Head coach Cleare said: “It’s no secret that we’re going through a bad patch. Our injury list is ridiculous but having important players back like our captain Sonny Gay and our big No.8 Maciu Nagobi brings big penetration to the group as it’s quite a young squad.”

It’s been a hard season for Rochford who came into this weekend just one point above the bottom two with a huge relegation six-pointer to come against 15th placed North Walsham on April 15.

Cleare said: “We know our limitations, we’re a small club in a difficult location for recruitment, so we do rely heavily on local Essex lads. It’s a really young group and we know we punch above our weight week to week. We don’t think we’ll be a top four team but we’ve always wanted to stay in this league and try to finish as close as possible to mid-table.

“The North Walsham game is a must win because they’re down there with us but we’ve played a lot of the top teams now and a lot of the teams we now play are mid-table, so you can’t say they will but a team might take their foot off the gas if they aren’t in a relegation or promotion battle. We’re going to target as many points from all of them if we can.”

With the RFU’s restructuring of National 2, Cleare was initially worried that 2 East wouldn’t be as strong as last season’s 2 South but with the new additions, he feels it’s a competitive league.

He said: “We lost a lot of good teams that went to the West and you thought it might become a bit weaker but when you get teams like Blackheath and Tonbridge come down it’s far from that. It’s quite nice to see on any given day that any team can beat anyone.”