Ts lose again

THURROCK suffered their second consecutive defeat in heartbreaking circumstances when conceding a penalty try with just two minutes of the match to go. An adjudged forward pass gave the visitors a scrum just five metres from the line and from the set piece Woodford were putting pressure through the scrum and with the ball in control at No8 feet, the referee awarded a penalty try for a Thurrock infringement, which means the try is given under the posts, making the conversion the easiest of tasks, to snatch victory.
Thurrock had led until that point by 13-11 and a hard earned if not scrappy victory looked likely. An early unconverted try from the visitors, put Thurrock on the back foot, but Thurrock gradually worked their way into the game and a fine break from Darryl Worster saw him perfectly time his pass to Ben Stanley to score, Stanley then unfortunately put the conversion wide.
The scores stayed level until the break, Thurrock hoped that they could get some momentum after failing to get more than 3 phases together. A Woodford penalty early after the restart put them back in front, but the home side cranked up the pressure and excellent work from the Thurrock forwards allowed Brad Retigan to crash over, again the conversion went wide.
Woodford came straight back and laziness from Thurrock at the ruck gave away yet another needless penalty and Woodford accepted the chance to regain the lead. With just 10 minutes remaining Ben Stanley got his first successful kick of the match with a penalty to put Thurrock ahead and in the wet conditions looked it could be the match winner. But it was not to be, as the drama at the end unfolded.
Thurrock can look back and only have themselves to blame they failed to execute a couple of try scoring opportunities in the second half, which came back to haunt them, as the visitors snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. On a brighter note the match saw the return of Ben Timson for the first time this season.