Victorious Ipswich Rugby Club reassess targets for London 2 North season

Rugby Ipswich vs Rochford Hundred Grabbing the ball is Liam Brittain.

Coach Clive Bell had targeted a points haul of 12 points from the team’s next four games, including Saturday’s.

Now, the Suffolk team will head into their next two games, at Romford & Gidea Park – a team with an identical record – and at home to bottom-placed Basildon, confident of building on this success.

Things didn’t go to plan for the hosts early on with Rochford spurning two penalties before eventually taking the lead with an unconverted try.

This sparked Ipswich into action though and towards the end of the half, Bell’s men ramped up the pressure on their visitors and scored a penalty before the break, courtesy of Josh Haywood, to reduce the arrears to 5-3.

Rugby Ipswich vs Rochford Hundred Grabbing the ball is Liam Brittain.

Playing down the slope in the second half and following a change of tactics, Ipswich took the game away from their hosts, targeting the corner and putting pressure on Rochford’s back three.

Ipswich scored a penalty try after Carlton Littlechild had been taken off the ball, before Jimmy O’Riordan drove over the try line to extend his side’s advantage,

Mikey Graham added a third try, following a smart run from his own 22, the player playing around the short side before diving over in the corner. Rochford scored a late consolation but it was not enough, as Ipswich eased the pressure at the bottom.

Coach Bell said afterwards: “This week we re-assessed where we are in the league and took a step back.

“We looked at where we want to go and what we want to do and the players bought into it really well.

“We targeted 12 points from our next four games, including Saturday’s, so that’s another eight from the next three.

“Everybody stepped up to the plate and hopefully we can do the same again at Romford, where we have targeted five points, before having a repeat performance at home to Basildon.”