‘KEEP HAMMERING’ SAYS COACH

MATCH PREVIEW
Saturday’s game will be seen as a real opportunity to end to a four game losing streak. Rochford Hundred have three victories this season, including a shock win at Tonbridge Juddians, and are three places above Canterbury in the league table. However, the Essex side have a poor defensive record, averaging 32 points per game in the ‘against’ column’. They suffered a 28-3 reverse at Barnes last week. Matt Corker makes a couple of changes to the squad which did service at Sevenoaks with Dave Irvine returning to the second row and Frankie Morgan to the wing. Guy Hilton is still undergoing concussion protocols so Will Calder takes the Number 14 shirt, with Max Halliday moving to the replacements bench.
The Pilgrims travel to meet Sevenoaks 2 who are currently the undefeated leaders of Counties Kent 2.
Matt Corker says: “When you have lost a game, it is much harder to find the positives. We obviously still have things that need work, but even though results haven’t been going the way we want, the team has been making improvements week on week. So why aren’t we winning? We have some clear areas that we need to be more clinical in, and this week they have been our focus on the pitch but I have also spoken to the players about the quote below from Jacob Riis, the American 19th Century journalist.
“When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
This has been used by other sporting teams, but I think it applies to our situation. All good teams go through difficult times, it’s what we love about sport. My message to the players has been don’t put down your hammer just keep pounding the rock, because when your back’s against the wall it’s the only way out.”