Thurrock go down Bravely!!

Thurrock put up a courageous performance against table-toppers Westcombe Park on Saturday. Despite ending the first -half 26 points in arrears, they stormed back to dominate the second period and score two tries of their own.

Westcombe Park have recruited well this season, particularly in their 2 new wingers. Both have played in National One teams and were outstanding in the first half. They showed outstanding pace and both accelerated over for outstanding tries. Their footwork deep in their own half led to long-range strikes worthy of recognition.

Park's forwards gained sufficient possession to pin Thurrock back and their rolling maul was particularly successful. Thurrock were looking weary and under pressure after sustaining yet another injury to former captain and stalwart, Darryl Worster who was putting in one of his trademark last-ditch tackles!

At this stage Jake Barrand was putting in some massive relieving kicks, one of which gained sixty metres!

Unfortunately, Thurrock went in at the break 26-0 down with the match seemingly out of reach against a side that had racked up 140 points in their previous 3 games.

Whatever skipper, Charlie Russo said at half-time certainly had an impact, because there was certainly no doubting the effort Thurrock were putting in.

Jake Barrand, put in yet another powerful run and young Jack Cowman, Chris Shorter and Rob Murphy carried positively! After a plethora of possession and penalties accumulating, Barrand took a quick penalty and waltzed through the defence for a deserved riposte.

Unfortunately, the conversion just failed, but another fine kick set up another attack. In spite of a bold effort by Westcombe's No.8, Aiden Devane, Thurrock continued to dominate. A long period of pressure resulted in a wildly thrown punch from the Westcombe pack and a red card reduced them to 14 men. Just prior to this Thurrock had netted their second try through Ryan Wilkins, following a driving maul and we were set for a"grandstand" finish! Sadly for Thurrock they were unable to punish the demeanour owing to a quirk in the law which led to uncontested scrums.

With the first month of games out of the way, this period has not quite gone to plan for Thurrock with 15 players injured or unavailable. However, the future looks bright with the new Rugby Academy at Palmer's College and an excellent under 18 team who narrowly lost their game to Saracens by 15-8 on Sunday.

Next week, Thurrock return to Oakfield as they welcome Camberley. Ts will be looking for revenge having suffered defeats in both games to the visitors. Kick off as always is at 3pm