Great day of Rugby for Thurrock

Thurrock entertained one of the World's most iconic teams at a resplendent Oakfield on Saturday in front of a bumper crowd of enthusiastic youngsters as well as hundreds of fans who had travelled from West London.

The club's mini and Junior Section had just enjoyed a brilliant week of tuition and fun with "The New Zealand Rugby Experience" organised by the legendary Stanley Family.
They began their day with a training session and then were royally entertained by The London Welsh Choir,one of the World's best. ( They perform at The Royal Albert Hall annually; they sang at the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 Olympics and have performed with Tom Jones,Aled Jones ,Bryn Terfel and even "Take That" ! They were the first choir to perform at the new Wembley at the 2007 Rugby League Cup Final and sing regularly at Twickenham and The Principality Stadium).

As a special prelude to the World Cup, the Teams lined up before Kick Off and performed a mighty rendition of the anthems, a scene never seen in Thurrock before.

There had been a "curtain-raiser" with a spirited Ricky Love led Mongrels side going down to a well drilled London Welsh Druids . Nevertheless this game had been played in the true spirit of sport and was well controlled by emergency referee, Dave Stevens!

In the main match ,Thurrock kicked off into a strong westerly wind and immediately gained a foothold in the London Welsh half. A clever move which involved a resurgent Phill Ellis and Jake Bedding saw winger Dan Stone weaving across the pitch and almost setting up the first score.Unfortunately after another great effort,Dan was injured with a shoulder dislocation and had to be replaced by Lewis Cross.

A period of pressure led to a number of line-outs and forward drives which finally resulted in a fired up Anthony Catchpole spinning past his defender to crash over for the first score. Henry Bird's accurate conversion just fell short.This was a good period for Thurrock with Caolan Watts-Adams, Tani Loka and Joss Nunn to the fore. Tom Pool,with some good carries drove hard into London Welsh territory before Captain Charlie Russo got the second unconverted try to give Thurrock a lead they would keep throughout the game.

Using the wind well through the boot of Rhys Williams and Rhodri Dawes,the Welsh fought back and began to dominate proceedings. With outstanding back row Dan Ginger charging upfield and Jack Williams and Tom Baldwin starting to excel in the line-out, Thurrock came under increasing pressure. With Joss Nunn picking up a knee injury Thurrock had lost one of its outstanding players and Martin Jones gave debuts to the impressive youngsters Kodie Holloway & Loughborough bound Blake Burns.

As the Welsh now had the upper hand, the penalties started to stack up against Thurrock's depleted team. Great driving work by Mike Griffiths and Andrew Black brought a much deserved score which was converted by Rhys Williams from wide out.
Now it was all hand to the pumps with surge after surge of Welsh attacks. A penalty pushed the Welsh deep into the Thurrock half and a siege ensued. Brave tackling kept the red phalanx out before captain Charlie Russo was sent to the bin with minutes left on the clock. London Welsh turned down the kick at goal to draw even, they decided to go for a last ditch victory with a scrum. This was the "last play"and everyone waited with baited breath, but in a dramatic anti climax the Welsh front row pre engaged and Thurrock were awarded a free kick. The ball was put out of play and Thurrock had won a vital victory to keep their momentum going following a successful Pre season programme that has seen T's claim 3 victories from 3 games.

Thurrock now have a magnificent record against London's famous Exiles teams having added this win to the great Cup victory over London Irish in 1991 and the 50-15 victory over London Scottish in 2004.

With the London Welsh Choir performing after the game, this set the scene for a great evening. With a new Rugby Academy opening at Palmer's College this week and the World Cup in a fortnight this was a great advert for Rugby.

Next week Thurrock begin their League Season away to Surrey based Cobham. Kick Off is 3:00pm.