ROCHFORD Hundred suffered a shock 20-10 defeat at struggling Ipswich in London Two North East.

The Suffolk side, who are second from bottom in the standings, had triumphed just once in their opening six games.

But they were still able to see off Rochford, much to the disappointment of first team manager Graham Pratt.

“It was another painful defeat but we only have ourselves to blame,” said Pratt.

“We started well and there were some good individual performances, especially in the forwards.

“But overall it was a poor team effort and the side will need to go up a few gears against top of the table Diss this weekend.”

Rochford have now suffered two successive defeats but went ahead at the weekend when flanker Andrew Bevan went over to score.

Late in the half, Ipswich responded with a penalty to cut Hundred’s lead to 5-3 at half-time.

Ipswich stayed on after the break though and, straight from the kick off, a series of defensive errors saw the ball bobble about and allowed a try to be scored.

The conversion was added to put Ipswich 10-5 in front and they extended their advantage with two more tries to put Rochford out of sight.

Hundred did hit back with a late try from Tom Corbet but by then the damage had already been done as Rochford slipped down to seventh in the standings.

Rochford Hundred: Bass, Corbet, Mark, Wheeler, Bacon, Stemp, A Bevan, Horsburgh, Gould, Stewart, White, Smith, Edwards, Marshall, Fitzpatric.

Replacements: Wiseman, M Bevan & S Ashton

>SOUTH Woodham Ferrers moved into sixth in the table with a 29-15 win against Cantabrigian.

But it was another bad afternoon for bottom-of-the-table Basildon who were beaten 9-8 at home to Campion.

Basildon have been beaten in all seven of their matches this term.