ROCHFORD Hundred saw off Stowmarket 67-13 in London Two North East despite not being at their best.

The victory was Rochford’s ninth in 10 games.

But their first team manager Graham Pratt was not completely satisfied with the display.

“I suppose a sign of a good side is even when they are not at their best they can still get a good result and that was the case in this game,” said Pratt.

“We scored 10 tries to Stowmarket’s two but we know we were not performing as a constructive unit and played a rather sloppy game with too many errors.”

Despite that, third placed Rochford went in front with a try from full-back Sam Edwards which Tom Ashton converted.

But, almost straight away, Stowmarket came back strongly and cut the home-side’s lead with a penalty.

Rochford found it hard going in the set scrum where the Suffolk team out scrummaged them for most of the first half before they sorted out the problems and started to get the better of Stowmarket.

Rochford attacked well and caused all sorts of problems for the visitors’ fragile defence.

As a result, centre Matt Stewart ran over for a try and shortly after broke away again to score a second but, as both efforts were out wide, Ashton just failed to convert either although one kick hit the upright but bounced off outside the posts.

Ashton made up for it with a well hit penalty kick but, just before the break, Stowmarket went over for an unconverted try and, after a disjointed session, Rochford found themselves 20-8 up.

However, the second half was all Rochford as they started to get their act together and played some lovely flowing rugby.

This resulted in seven tries with Stewart scoring a further two and Michael Stemp, Sam Edwards, Andy Baker, Greg, Whight and Scott Horsburgh also going over.

Ashton added six conversions but, to Stowmarket’s credit, they never gave up and their efforts were rewarded late on with the final try of the game.