THURROCK 31 BARKING 10

THURROCK 31
BARKING 10
The week’s rest obviously did Thurrock a favour as they started life without their SA trio who headed home, after a successful 6 months stay. They got off to the perfect start as a well worked backs try and good hand passing gave Jake Barrand room to make a fine run and cut inside to score under the posts, Tim Blundell added the conversion then a penalty to give the home side a 10point cushion.
The game then went into a very stop start affair with a strong breeze in the Thurrock faces, Barking were able to clear their lines, and from a penalty, Barking kicked to the corner and a successful catch and drive see them score in the corner
Thurrock maintained their 10-5 advantage until the break, when Thurrock made 2 unenforced changes bring on experienced Dan Carey and Brad Retigan, from the first Thurrock attack kicked for the corner, Thurrock won the resultant line out and it was Retigan with first touch of the ball looped round to score in the corner, and Blundell with the assistance of the wind nailed the conversion. Thurrock continued to dominate the scrum keeping pressure in the Barking half Alex Jones then got his name on the score sheet under the posts, Blundell again converted. Barking kept going and from a rare visit to the Thurrock 22 scored a try from a 5 metre scrum to make it 24-10
Thurrock required their 4th try to keep in the hunt and they had a try not given when Freddie Russo beat the cover defence to touch down, but the ref see it that a Barking player had downward pressure before. But their patience paid off and with a minute to Tim Blundell jinked his way passed the defence to score wide, he then capped a fine game by adding the conversion from the touchline to complete a well-deserved victory. In both league and Essex Cup.
Thurrock’s next league game will be Chingford away on 19th March