Going into this game Canterbury Head Coach Matt Corker warned that relegation threatened Rochford would fight like wounded animals after their mauling by Barnes the previous week.
Fight they did and so effectively that they edged a tight National 2 East contest which brought Canterbury two bonus points but disappointment that they could not maintain their recent improved form.
Despite starting positively and leading at the break they were too casual and inaccurate to put away some decent first half chances and those failures came to bite them.
Harvey Furneaux’s seventh minute try, converted by Frank Reynolds, made Rochford look vulnerable but they soon put that idea to rest.
Fly half Tauren Henwood stepped neatly through midfield with a quick reply but it was the city side who held the attacking edge.
The forwards did the work again for a Billy Young try, which left Reynolds an easy kick, but that was all they could find.
On the stroke of half time Cris Dudman’s penalty goal sliced the Canterbury lead to six points and they were soon under pressure from a fired up home side after the restart.
It earned Rochford territory and penalties and two from the boot of Dudman brought the scores level.
Going into the last quarter a disjointed Canterbury, who did not look after the ball, fell behind to a converted try by Rory Gray but then found some momentum of their own.
It brought a close quarters try for Dave Irvine, topped up by Reynolds, but missed tackles handed centre Sam Cappaert the hosts a third touchdown with eight minutes left.
Dudman’s successful kick left the city side needing a converted score to salvage a draw and they gave the ball width to send Ben Cooper over for a bonus point try.
Reynolds was faced with a difficult conversion, which he narrowly missed, and Rochford’s second half battling performance was rewarded.
Canterbury:W.Waddington, G.Hilton (rel C.Kingsman), S.Sterling, L.Hollidge, F.Morgan, F.Reynolds, B.Cooper (repl T.Williams,), B.Young (repl C.Macmillan), N.Morris (repl E.O’Donoghue) D.Herriott (repl E.Lusher), D.Irvine, J.Stephens, H.Furneaux, C.Murray, T.Oliver.
Pictures supplied by Phillipa Hilton.